Simon Schuster The Power of Hormones The new science of how hormones shape every aspect of our lives.

by Max Nieuwdorp

Simon Schuster The Power of Hormones The new science of how hormones shape every aspect of our lives ABISBOOK Simon Schuster.

352 pages, Paperback

Published February 13, 2025

Reviews

[Alice Joy Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

I now hate being a woman even more than I did before. Not only is much of the world against us, but our bodies are against us too. In so many ways the female body seems to compromise its own wellbeing in favour of its ability to reproduce, far from how the male body approaches things. While oestrogen may be important for sexual development, it makes us melancholy, weak, and tired, whereas testosterone makes men happy, strong, and energetic. This is an outrage. If it wasn’t blasphemy I would like to take this up with Him who designed us. But since it would probably be way out of line, I shan’t. I shall complain to the internet instead. While we may be ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ I don’t like it. Oestrogen sucks. Having ovaries sucks. Having the menopause loom ahead while I’ve barely recovered from the clustercuss of madness that was puberty, sucks. But hey, at least I can have babies.

This is a terribly fascinating book but in some instances expresses some rather questionable opinions. I’m not sure many historians of the Victorians would take kindly to the vast over-generalisation of calling the era “prudish.” Maybe if you are writing a science book you should try and not be miffing off any historians who end up reading it.

And I certainly don’t think it is a legitimate claim that the “percentage of transgender people who regret the [gender reassignment] surgery is negligible.” While the majority of transgender people may always be glad for their surgery, to offhandedly dismiss the numbers of people who regret what has been done to their bodies, as a doctor, is, frankly, appalling. Those who suffer from infections, regret, and additional dysphoria after surgeries are not by any stretch of the imagination ‘negligible.’ They are real, they are there, and they need doctors’ help, not just to be swept under the carpet in favour of the numbers who are glad for their operations.

As alluded to earlier, Nieuwdorp spends most of the book describing how women have it worse when it comes to hormonal issues. It is therefore not exactly fair to, after less than six pages of describing the effect the andropause (male equivalent of menopause) has on men, say that “ultimately, Mother Nature is fair” when it comes to ushering men and women into old age.

No, Max, it’s not fair.

As is said, women have erratic spikes and troughs of oestrogen not only in every month of their fertile lives, but in their menopause. They can get hot flushes, mood swings, memory troubles, vaginal dryness, and a whole host of other unpleasant symptoms. Men’s testosterone decreases on a gradual decline, producing not even close to the level of issues women have to deal with.

But yeah, a generally really interesting read overall. I would definitely recommend.

[Ligibookishmind · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read, and I definitely learned a few things about how much our hormones actually run the whole show… like seriously, they’re doing everything behind the scenes 😅

I liked the simple explanations and the real life stories,it made the science feel more human and less like a lecture. But at the same time, some parts felt a bit too dense or repetitive for me, so I didn’t stay fully hooked all the way through.

Still, it’s a good book if you’re curious about how hormones affect your moods, energy, sleep, cravings, stress… basically your whole life. I enjoyed it, just not obsessed. A solid read, but not a fave 💛📖✨

[Kari Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect Level of Nerdy-ness

[Victoria Haupt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an amazing overview from historic development in research to the actual function and possible dysfunctions!