Signals: The Hidden Power and Secret Language of Hormones – A Scientific Guide to Understanding How the Body Talks to Itself

by Saira Hameed

In the tradition of Atul Gawande and Henry Marsh, a physician writer’s expert examination of the extraordinary power of hormones and the miraculous story of the life force signals that make us.

Hormones write life’s masterplan - building a new human being in utero, transforming a helpless newborn into a sturdy toddler, igniting the firestorm of puberty, conjuring the alchemy of fertilization and directing the transition into menopause and beyond.

And all the while, day-to-day, minute-by-minute, hormones control our mood and stress levels, how hungry we feel and how much we weigh, changes in libido and blood sugar, the circadian rhythm of our energy balance and sleep-wake cycle. In Signals, Dr. Saira Hameed takes us on a journey through the endocrine system, the body’s miraculous and often misunderstood communication network of endocrine glands and hormone signals. We barely notice these internal signals efficiently carrying messages from cell to cell because the power of hormones over our brains and bodies is so fundamental that their omnipotent control is simply felt as life itself. Yet when the body’s signaling system breaks, we see with hindsight that be ‘hormonal’ is in fact to be human.

Here Dr. Hameed combines expert experience, revelatory science, medical history, and cultural commentary with compelling compassionately recounted patient cases. In this special confluence of storytelling Dr. Hameed invites readers to share in the mysterious, magical inner world of the endocrine system, going beyond hormone hacks and hype to tune out the noise and instead listen into the signals – to the powerful endocrine life force of how the body talks to itself.

Genres: Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

Published May 19, 2026

Reviews

[Gem ~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part memoir part medical nonfiction this book delves into the often overlooked specialism of endocrinology. How our hormones govern all of our human functions, appearance, and even emotions.
This gives patient examples of different areas and different hormones and what can go wrong and how it can be controlled or reversed by medicine.
It is an honest and sometimes brutal look at the experiences of patients, doctors and their interactions and shortcomings.
I did struggle at times with the ways patients were described, it is a true reflection of how many doctors establish appointments with their patients but the often lack of empathy or connection was a sore point for me personally. This is the reality of medical training and the hierarchy of modern medicine and doctors are under a lot of pressures and balancing burnout weekly, but things do need to change in this regard to ever get a better whole body approach to health and wellness. This is also quite a lengthy book so doesn't always keep the flow going smoothly.
For anyone interested in hormones and medicine it is a book that provides unusual case studies and anecdotes and is something to get your teeth into if you can feel a detachment from the patients mentioned.

[Zo Smi · Rating 4 out of 5]

{ARC REVIEW} This book offers thorough coverage of some of the body's hormones, from their historical discovery to the mechanisms they are responsible for. The main hormonal areas covered are: fertility, metabolism, and diabetes.

Not long into the opening, however, I was wondering whether I need to know quite this much detail about hormones, suggesting I am not the ideal reader for this book. The book's description is limited. So, for those of you wondering whether to read this book, I'd say:
> You need to have a certain level of fascination with biology, hormones, and medical conditions.
> You mustn't be expecting to find any solutions to your own hormonal issues.

I am interested in hormones in regards menopause and how they link to sleep and muscle building. I've already watched various podcasts discussing hormones in this respect, and I surprised myself at how many things in Hameed's book I already knew. I also have a particular interest in HPA-axis dysregulation, and I was kind of hoping this book would offer more explanations and solutions to overcome such dysregulation, but at the same time, I already knew that research hasn't come so far yet, so I wouldn't find the answers in this book.

The writing is accessible for most levels of readers, and setting the discussion in real-life medical cases, including in patients Hameed has worked on herself, helps to alleviate potential dryness. In places, it can feel like a memoir.

I did like that Hameed included a chapter on patients with whom doctors can't seem to find anything wrong. I've often wondered what leads to a doctor declaring "There's nothing wrong with you!"

One thing I wasn't fond of:
> There are quite a few quotations inserted throughout. While I can see the connection to the surrounding text, the number of quotations was excessive and they sometimes interrupted the flow and made the discussion feel somewhat choppy. Biblical citations and allusions could have been dropped for me, personally.

[Sian Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really insightful, well written read.

I try to read one non-fiction book per month, and these are often health focused ones. While I always really enjoy them, they’re hardly gripping “just one more chapter” kind of reads. But weirdly, this one was?! I struggled to put it down. I can’t pinpoint exactly what it was, but it must have been the engaging writing style which alternated with a good pace between a new anecdotal patient story each chapter and a more in depth medical look into what was going on behind the scenes in their body, the history of how a new condition was discovered, or how a diagnosis was made in the past. It was weirdly almost like a mystery, with a new clue being uncovered, then diving into what that might mean based on evidence (or lack of), then back for another clue.

In addition to the patients’ stories, the author’s was also told, including a quick plunge into the medical world during covid - something it’s hard to comprehend now, even just a few years later. I haven’t read much about the experiences of doctors during covid aside from a couple of editorials at the time, but I guess it’s history enough now that these stories are starting to emerge more. Obviously we all knew about what doctors were facing at the time, but hearing it from their own perspectives shines a new light on now we can look back on it rather than with the unknown panic at the time. I enjoyed this section and how it added depth and context to the book, but was short enough that it didn’t take over from the overall message.

I've already recommended this book to a couple of people, including reading whole sections aloud to my husband. If you're beginning a health journey and are interested in how hormones play a part in that, this is an insightful read for that. It gives more context to the role that hormones have in everyone's lives with excellent examples that show the complexity of it in a way that anyone can understand.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publishers for an ARC of this book.

[Josephine · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Signals" is a book about how we are all hormonal! Hormones are more important than most of us are aware and Dr Saira Hameed, an endocrinologist, talks the reader through some of the problems that occur when our hormones don't work properly and how medicine has sometimes, but not always, been able to fix these issues.

Even though there is a lot of science in this book which flew a little over my head, Dr Hameed does an amazing job of helping the reader to understand the basics. One of the best things she does is to use specific stories of her own patients. This helps to bring a human element to each topic and make the information relatable.

Overall, I found it really interesting and insightful and I feel it would be a relevant read to anyone who wants to understand the human body a little better.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

[Abby Butts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read book about a function of the body thats really absract. She had some new research and some self help