This book seems more like a conversation with a friend or a health influencer, rather than medical research. While Sarah E. Hill is a Evolutionary Psychologist, not a gynecologist or endocrinologist, she does seem to present the topic of menstrual health in a way that lay people can understand, especially since it not a widely discussed topic. I think this is a good book for a jumping off point to learn more about the menstrual cycle and how you need to adjust your life to work with your cycle, not against it. It brings up some worthwhile points of treating the whole body and system, rather than just the menstrual symptoms, BUT it is very generalized advice, and should definitely be talked about with your own health care providers. She seems to have a bias toward "natural" methods, which there is nothing wrong with, but again, should be talked about with a healthcare provider who knows your specific needs especially when introducing or coming off of any sort of supplements or medications.
I'm not a fan of her writing style, and while she tries to address medical misogyny and sexism, and the overall fear of topics relating to menstrual health, it comes across as more "boys suck" rather than a critique or a call to fix the broken system to provide better understanding and research support for these topics.
Thanks to NetGally and William Morrow for this ARC.

Sometime in 2019, Sarah Hill’s This Is Your Brain on Birth Control popped up on an audible new release newsletter. The title was catchy and I, a long time user of the pill, was intrigued. I listened to the audiobook and repeatedly rewinded to replay everything, needing to hear the words two or three times. I was astonished at the suggestions, and although they were only just correlations, it sent me down a path to actually learn my body, something that I, at the time a 27 year old woman, had never done on this level. This was a catalyst for me to deep dive into other books about the fertility, hormones and women’s health and so I was stoked to see The Period Brain and eager to dive in, knowing Hill's research as a part of my hormone appreciation origin story.

Did I learn anything new? Yes, and no. I gained a deeper understanding of the superficial facts I have known for the last five years since going down this hormone rabbit hole and becoming a user of the Fertility Awareness Method. But, do I read only to learn new ideas? No, I read to learn and there’s helpfulness in repetition. If you were to only read one book about hormones though, I wouldn’t start with this one: I’d go for one of first four I list below.

What I liked :
+ The Science! I loved understanding what progesterone truly does in the body AND the brain, and the biological reasons, in addition to the research behind the science and how we’ve gotten the information we have so far
+ Learning about other products and resources in the market to expand my knowledge. I am now going to dive into the impacts of glucose and understanding inflammation
+ Chapters 6-10! I would re-read these in a heartbeat

What I Didn’t Like :
— Censorship of curse words: write them fully or don’t curse at all; ‘sh*t’ and ‘f*ck’ feel like they cheapen the text
— More charts and infographics would have been immensely helpful

Similar Books I Recommend :
This is Your Brain on Birth Control (Sarah E Hill)
The Period Repair Manual (Lara Briden)
Taking Charge of Your Fertility (Toni Weschler)
The Fifth Vital Sign (Lisa Henrickson-Jack)
Eve (Cat Bohannon)
All In Her Head (Elizabeth Comen)

Overall, this is a quick read with informative information about the menstrual cycle. At times, this book was a little repetitive. This book is heavily factual all about a woman’s cycle. Those with little to no knowledge about this topic, would be a great audience for it. The book had some great resources and information about how to improve your menstrual and overall health. I thought the book was interesting as I can relate to some of the information being summarized.

I didn’t love this book. It felt VERY repetitive regarding the follicular phase being “sexy” and the luteal being the body prepping for pregnancy. I think it will be popular for women who aren’t well versed in their cycles, and perhaps a younger demographic. Specifically I’d have loved this in my late teens and twenties but I simply didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hmm I feel very similarly about this book as I do about Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life- love the message, learned a lot, but I just really don't like the writing style.

This is a short little book that explains female sex hormones (estrogen and progesterone), how they cycle each month, and the effects they have on your body and mind (aka PMS), in addition to tips on mitigating these effects. Her goal as a hormone researcher is to educate people with these hormones (she is careful to point out in the beginning that all bodies are not the same, and this does not apply in a strict gender binary at all) on how their body functions, because as she rightfully points out, most of us are never taught any of this stuff.

It was super interesting to learn about how my hormones work, testosterone included, and I really liked her perspective on PMS- that it only feels so bad because we do not understand what is going on and try to live our life as if we don't have hormonal cycles and feel crazy, rather than working with our bodies and adjusting our diets, exercise routines, and sleep to fit the needs of where we are in these cycles each month (of course, with the exception of some who have things like PCOS or PMDD requiring further care).

I am curious to try out some of her tips (you DO need more calories and sleep in the luteal phase!) and start to track my cycle a bit more going forward.

My only quip was that the writing style is not my favorite, as it comes across like a teenager trying to explain something (lots of cursing, pop culture references, simple phrasing, etc.) which is just not my preference when reading a book about science, though it might appeal to you! I also thought all the content of this book could be written in like a single long note, because there was a lot of repetition and too much " and that's what you'll find out soon" sort of thing, rather than just getting to the point.

Fascinating examination of the impact of the hormonal cycle and which parts of the process are actually culturally conditioned

(I received a free digital copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review)

So while there wasn't much new information in this book for me, I did enjoy how the author explained things which caused me to learn more. There is a lot of insight in here that I believe some men should read so they know how to be better women during periods!

This is a fabulous book. Gave me a lot of insight about periods and how it affects women when it’s that time of the month. Dr. Sarah Hill wrote a great book about the science of it. Please go check it out.

As someone with PCOS and PMDD I will read any period or hormone-related book I can get my hands on. I was a bit disappointed in this one, though. It reiterated the same concepts I’ve seen explained better in other books, such as Woman Code by Alisa Vitti or Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life by Claudia Welch. TLDR: exercise differently during different weeks of your cycle, try seed cycling, get enough sleep, prep healthy food to eat, and find a way to manage stress well. There wasn’t a lot of new information in here or specific guidelines. I did appreciate the research that was shared, though.