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We’re Finally Starting to Take Women’s Hormones Seriously

When Eleanor Morgan approached publishers with an idea for a book investigating the effect of hormones on women’s health, they were “squeamish” about it. “Women, periods, blood, vaginas. It wasn’t an easy sell and I have no doubt because I saw the emails that came from sales departments,” she tells me over the phone. “It was too ‘angry feminist’ – who’s going to read it? I remember thinking, ‘Half the population. Every single woman of reproductive age has some kind of call to a story related to having a womb.’ There is no other reality.” At one point, it looked as though the book might never be published.

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Featured

 An Introduction to Women’s Hormones: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly

Women’s hormones often get a bad rap. But your hormones aren’t evil! They’re beautifully complex and perfectly designed to help you thrive. They support your growth, your resilience to stress, and your miraculous ability to create life. But when your hormone levels aren’t optimal, they can cause symptoms like weight gain, fatigue, insomnia, and mood swings.

 Everything you need to know about female hormones

Female hormones are the first in line to take the fall for those sudden, unexplained mood swings but there is more to them. Delve closer, and you’ll find that an intricate network of chemical messengers is functioning as a well-oiled machine within your body and ensuring that all trains are running on time. If you’ve never really understood what they do or why you need to stay vigilant about hormonal imbalances, we recruited medical experts to decode everything you need to know about the female hormones:

 Your Life in Hormones

What the hell is going on with your hormones—and how can you harness them for happiness, health, fertility, brainpower, and energy? YOU KNOW THE BASICS: Your monthly hormone cycle kicks in with your first period and fades out with your last. But what's going on in between? How are estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone affecting your mood, energy, libido, and brain? Here, the comprehensive play-by-play for capitalizing on your hormonal swings to enrich your work, health, and relationships.

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Let’s Stop Fear-Mongering Hormone Therapy, Okay?

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Why Every 20-Something Should Know More About Their Hormones

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Chemical messengers: how hormones affect our mood

The impact of gonadal hormones on mood is apparent at many other life stages. Around puberty, a time of major hormonal change, many girls experience various mood swings and other changes in mental health. Some women who take certain types of the combined oral contraceptive experience depressive symptoms with irritability, loss of enjoyment and even suicidal thoughts.

Female Hormones Can Make a Bloody Mess of Your Mental Health

Mood swings, depression, tiredness, fatigue, irritability, anxiety, reduced cognitive ability, aggression, anger, sleep disorders and food cravings. One of the fun things about having a womb is that the aforementioned are simply considered par for the course. That’s your lot. Sorry gals, but if you’ve got the temerity to be biological, then you’re also going to have to suffer the psychological.

Female Hormones Explained

We call our ups and downs a hormone cycle but it can feel more like a rollercoaster. Female sex hormones can be the reason why you go from feeling tired to horny then angry in minutes. And, if you regularly experience skin breakouts, mood imbalance, excessive pain or out of control cravings, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Going with the flow: why we should learn to embrace feeling hormonal

This article is more than 6 years old Going with the flow: why we should learn to embrace feeling hormonal This article is more than 6 years old For decades, being ‘hormonal’ has been used to diminish women. But why? Eleanor Morgan argues that monthly cycles are just another part of learning to be ourselves

How Hormones Became a Wellness Obsession

Birth control is prescribed to treat a range of hormonal issues. But women in their 20s and 30s are increasingly pursuing alternative solutions, taking a D.I.Y. approach to health.

Sex Hormones Are Brain Hormones. What Does This Mean for Treating Brain Diseases?

A growing understanding of how “reproductive” hormones sculpt the brain could transform the management of neurological conditions.

The Surprising Way Your Hormones Could Be Messing With Your Hair

My first round of laser hair removal seemed successful, and so did round two—but then I realized that my hair had grown back to its normal thickness in less than a month. I emailed my expert dermatologist who's been conducting the treatments, Joshua Zeichner, with concern. "Is there something wrong with me? Is it not working?" I'm only two rounds in, so I might have been overreacting, but he suggested that I get a blood test to be sure that my hormone levels are normal. Wait, what?

There are HUGE differences between male and female hormonal cycles, and it turns out the clock literally works in men's favour

Just to add to the original “men are from Mars, women are from Venus” theory (or, let’s face it, gospel), we have news for you regarding the male hormonal cycle. Spoiler: it’s totally different to the female cycle. When we think of the female biological experience of hormones, at worst it can be a really difficult, draining thing to go through every month as your hormones go through their cycle. Mood swings, lack of energy, you name it. It’s rough. An extremely savvy (female-identifying) TikTok user has gone viral by taking on a male-identifying user’s very casual (and arguably glib) criticism of his girlfriend’s lack of energy, despite the fact that she had been sleeping a lot.

What doctors want everyone to stop getting wrong about menopause

Misinformation around menopause is still frustratingly common—among both doctors and patients. We asked experts why you shouldn't believe these five myths.

What Does Estrogen Do in the Brain? A Lot More Than You Might Realize

Long considered solely a “sex hormone,” estrogen's role in brain health is often overlooked.

Women's Hormones: The Main Culprits for Changes in Your Health?

Whether it’s lower energy, weight gain, irritability, decreased sex drive or other symptoms, as many women approach 40 years of age or older, they report feeling ‘different.’ While many women are quick to blame their hormones for the differences they begin experiencing, it’s important to know that hormones are not always the catalyst for these changes. In our experience, the majority of women who report these problems are actually suffering from stress and lifestyle-related choices, rather than hormonal shifts.