Book series where women gain superpowers based on menopause symptoms due to Chinese medicine

Question

Tip of my tongue, but about 5-6 years ago, I read a series of books following women (I think at least three) who'd gained superpowers based on menopause symptoms after their "Alternative Medicine" doctor, an older Chinese woman, gave them herbal medicine to try. One woman was Hispanic, and woke up a man, with super-strength and maybe enhanced toughness. I remember her husband, also Hispanic, had a lot of trouble with the change, although he eventually warmed to the idea of continuing to be sexually active with her. One woman gained fire powers. I forget what the third one gained. I want to say it had something to do with manipulating her weight, with some early scenes having her wearing diving weights around her waist to avoid floating.

Eventually, they meet each other and team up, especially when they realize they all have the same doctor, who it turns out was using them as guinea pigs for experimental treatments outside of scientific understanding, but which she was trying to study scientifically. I remember it involved foreign herbs, and I think some sort of jade device that the protagonist women steal at some point for leverage.

The scientist who transformed them (maybe named Jasmine?) is presented as somewhat sympathetic with her apparently having been a chemical genius, but held down in her career due to her sex. Now, older, she's more established, but feels like she's running out of time to make her big break. Ironically, I think a lab accident causes her to deage to a teenager, which means people find her even less credible. I believe the search for her covers the first book. At the end, due to the deaging, she slipped by the police.

I think later books have the scientist kidnapped by organized crime, and the heroes trying to retrieve her both so that they can be cured (if they still want to, as some of them are getting used to having unaccustomed power) and also to keep powers out of the hands of criminals. I also think that the Hispanic woman's husband gets shot at some point when he tries to get involved in a fight to assuage his feelings of masculine inferiority to his wife.

The books were electronic, in English, and seemed well-written despite a somewhat silly premise. They seemed novel length, about 200 pages each, at least a trilogy of books. I have too many books in my Kindle history to really browse, so that hasn't helped.

Answer 1

Sounds like the Menopausal Superheroes series by Samantha Bryant.

• Going Through the Change (2015)
• Change of Life (2016)
• The Good Will Tour (2020)
• Face the Change (2017)
• Friend or Foe (2020)
• Friend or Foe: A Menopausal Superhero Short Story Collection (2017)

Here's the Goodreads synopsis for the first book in the series, Going Through the Change:

“The Change” is difficult for everyone, but for these four women, the transformation is bigger than they ever imagined!

They all led completely normal, and completely different lives, with two things in common: they used natural products made by the same small company, and they were all going through menopause. Now instead of finding her hot flashes under control, Helen shoots fire from her fingertips! Patricia’s thick skin isn’t nearly as metaphorical as it used to be – now she’s bulletproof! Jessica’s mood lightened, but so did the rest of her! And Linda’s gone through the biggest changes of all, but she doesn’t have any trouble opening the pickle jar anymore!

Four ordinary women suddenly living extraordinary lives, with one common thread – there’s one person in common in all their lives. Now the Menopausal Superheroes are looking for the woman responsible for taking their “change” to the extreme!

This user review from Goodreads offers some more relevant details about the individual characters in the first book:

Meet Linda a woman going through the menopause who has been trying Ms Lui's Chinese herbal products to help her with her symptoms. She's been using "Nu Yu" soap and it really has helped her become a new person, in fact it's promoted such a change in hormones that she has turned into a man.

Patricia is an old friend of Cindy Lui, she's suffering from itchy skin as part of her hormonal symptoms. A hard nosed boss at work, the cream that Cindy suggests makes Patricia's skin so hard she becomes bullet proof.

Jessica, is a much younger character, a cancer survivor, she has depression she's been drinking Ms. Lui's tea to make her feel lighter and she literally is light now as she finds herself floating around the room.

Helen suffers from hot flushes, she takes a "surge protector" pill to give her a new super coolness, but the heat needs to go somewhere and she finds she has the ability to make fire.

Even Cindy Lui has her own discoveries, not ready to be retired off, she's taken her own medicines which make her younger. But what has happened to all these women? Why have they had such extreme reactions to Cindy's medicines? In an attempt to study the women Cindy becomes a sinister mad doctor rather than a friend to those looking for an alternative to conventional medical treatments.