Customer Reviews

Truth About Hormones

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read the paperback edition of the original publishing year of 2005. It is written by a British science commentator/editor for various newspapers/magazines and a presenter of a BBC science program. For one thing, this means that this book is written in British English, which is fine, unless when it comes to measurements. I simply had no idea what it meant, when she wrote about a 10-year-old girl weighing 13.5 stones and a 2-year-old boy weighing 5 stones. Until I transcalculated that into 189 lbs (85.7 kg) and 70 lbs (31.8 kg) respectively. All due to the power of hormones (in these specific cases). The other issue I initially had was that I had my doubts about the non-professional writing about such a specific topic. But I do not regret having read the book. It has been criticized of not really explaining how the hormones make us tick the way we do (as in biochemistry), describing the resulting effects only. So you should know that beforehand. Of course, this meant also that the book is written in a highly entertaining fashion. Which I appreciated very much, as I like to laugh once in a while during my textbook prone reading habits.

You will find many hormone issues, you may have wondered about for a long time or never knew existed. Is it true that semen makes you happy when swallowing it? Will nipple-twiddling of pregnant women really effect the onset of labour or remain just a fun thing to do? Is it an urban legend or scientific fact that women on the pill change the sex of fish in the Themes? Is it true that girlfriends can synchronize their menstruation? And other essential questions for the not-too-squeamish. Other issues include breast and prostate cancer, baldness, body hair, ageing and JFK's severe hormone syndrome. And everything you need to know about teenagers, of course. Such as that it would be a very good idea to change school hours for adolescents.

The book will open you up to the idea that in some areas you are much less in charge of yourself by the so-called free will than you think.

Some points of criticism are that it jumps into your face that some parts are heterocentristic. Occasionally I wondered how hormones work in homosexuals as the respective gender studies were blatantly heterosexual. As the book is a lot about both sexes producing all the same hormones (just in different dosages), it would have been not far to seek an answer, for example, wether homosexual men would find pictures of women more attractive, too, (or of men) when they sniff vaginal hormones of ovulating women. Especially, since heterosexual men don't like the smell either WITHOUT the pictures. I also don't remember having read anything about such issues as male lactation, which would have been obvious in a book like this. On another topic, the term "race" for humans isn't scientific and I seriously doubt that the (West African) Dogon are "the nearest we have to representations of early humans". What about the so called San or Mbuti? Africa is a bit more diverse. Actually more diverse genetically than the entire rest of the world put together.

This isn't the definitive book about hormones, but a worthy introduction. Some topics should be checked from other perspectives. For example on ageing, you may wanna read also The Science of Orgasm, Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body, Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World (Popular Science) and Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life.