GME Sales Blog

My friend Linda Cobb’s 82-year-old mother sniffs at menopause as vulgar, but she likes to know when her daughter, a Montreal sociologist, gets quoted in the media and interviewed on television.

Cobb, 54 and past menopause, started her monthly newsletter, A Friend Indeed, in 1984 after finding scant information about menopause, hot flashes etc, available when she needed it. She also wanted to stamp out the stigma.

Conceived as a kaffee klatch-bymail, half of each eight-page issue reports the latest in menopause research, hormone treatment controversies and books. The other half comprises letters from readers sharing their experiences, trading questions and advice – on topics like menopause and irregular periods. "It was considered not quite nice," Cobb said from Quebec. "If men had hot flashes, they would have competitions to see whose lasted longer."