The book my patients have been waiting for.' Dr Peta Wright, gynaecologist and women's health advocate Hormone Repair Manual is published by Pan Macmillan. It’s a practical guide to feeling better in your 40s, 50s, and beyond. It explains how to navigate the change of perimenopause and relieve symptoms with natural treatments such as diet, nutritional supplements, and bioidentical (body-identical) hormone therapy. It is true that the pill often has extreme side effects about which no one warns you and that it's prescribed too easily as a way to ignore people when they justifiably complain about having irregular periods, menstrual cramps, bad PMS, or acne. That's all good and well and we should definitely have a open discussion about what the pill is and what it does and what possible consequences it might have to our health, both physical and mental.

Copyright © Lara Briden 2021

Briden covers many more period complaints and complications, such as endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, menopause, heavy periods and many others, and with each of these, she prescribes different medicines, such as vitamins and dietary changes, to try and combat the effects the condition is having on the body. For me, much of this didn't apply, but it was interesting to read up on what could help, in that situation. Obviously, in the most severe situation, surgical intervention is probably the only option, and it tends to be the last option that a woman has.I wish I had read this a decade ago. I would have saved myself from years and years of sub-optimal health. Unfortunately, this book wasn't even published 10 years ago, and instead I listened to my gynecologist who suggested I continue taking the pill to "regulate my hormones and period." Now, after reading this book, I know that the pill was just masking underlying health issues, that a period on the pill isn't a real period, that the pill was suppressing ovulation and preventing my body from producing extremely beneficial hormones. Estrogen, etc and there’s significant clinical and observational research that says soy could help hormonal issues assuming the woman doesn’t have thyroid problems 🤷🏻‍♀️ This book states that omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids found in vegetable oils promote inflammatory prostaglandins. This claim is not cited. In fact, omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids have not been shown to cause inflammation in humans (PMID:22889633) or even to increase arachidonic acid (PMID: 21663641). What’s more, a science advisory noted that in human studies, higher levels of omega-6 PUFAs were associated with decreased levels of proinflammatory markers and increased levels of antiinflammatory markers (PMID: 19171857). Sleep is another priority strategy for period health. Getting seven or eight hours of quality sleep each night will do more for you than almost any supplement or herb we discuss in this book. Why is sleep so important for hormones? For one thing, it stabilizes your HPA axis and cortisol. It also improves insulin sensitivity and regulates the release of luteinizing hormone (LH), estrogen, and progesterone. Sleep is more important than exercise. Hopefully, you have time in your day for both. If you have to choose between sleep and exercise, choose sleep! Aim for at least seven hours each and every night. If you have trouble sleeping, then please take a minute to consider the underlying reason. As for the information on how to enhance natural cycles, I feel like some changes could be made in terms of the book’s organization. As other reviewers have noted, the book encourages the reader to read the whole book, but then also is repetitive in repeating information and will redirect the reader to other chapters. Much of the information in this book is general how to be healthy information. I would have preferred an overview that gives this advice once at the beginning instead of repeating it for each section. Of course diet/exercise/reducing stress will be beneficial to all period problems.

Hormone Repair Manual - Pan Macmillan AU Hormone Repair Manual - Pan Macmillan AU

There are too many false and uncited claims mixed in with some good information. Here are some troublesome statements I came across: Alright so now that my soap box is out of the way, let’s talk about this book. I’ll just jump right to the bad: there’s a lot of hormonal birth control fear-mongering in here. Concerns that simply are not supported by the literature or the vast majority of gynecologists. The main argument is that BC suppresses ovulation, and is therefore bad because it covers up potentially serious conditions. The Hormone Repair Manual is a must-have guide to understanding and overcoming the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. What does natural treatment entail? Sleep, Diet, Exercise, and Supplements. A side note about sleep...The way Briden talks about periods while on the pill (what she calls "pill bleeds") not being real periods, reminded me of the way Matthew Walker talks about sleeping pill induced sedation not being real sleep in his book Why We Sleep, which I highly recommend. Period Repair Manual and Why We Sleep were both eye-opening for me. I was happy when Briden mentions the importance of sleep in this book:

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Why am I nearly THIRTY SEVEN years old and no one ever taught me this stuff???????? I feel that I have been deprived of extremely important medical information for the majority of my life, to the (sometimes severe) detriment of my health and wellbeing. All because the existing medical establishment is too lazy and cheap to actually research the female body and reproductive functions, instead opting to shut them off with hormonal birth control any time there is an issue. Other issues: she strongly discourages a vegan diet but gives no supporting evidence except that “vegan diets may be low in certain vitamins and minerals” 🙄 🙄 this can also be said for the typical western diet. For vegans, she recommends they take a number of supplements, like taurine, but doesn’t say why, what they do, how they will help, what a low level might do, what food sources might have them, and why a vegan might be “low” in the first place. Most of these things cannot be tested for—that is, you can’t know if you’re low or not. After working on Body in Balance with DR Neal Barnard I’ve become interested in hormones (and have sought out other professional opinions re: treatment)

Lara Briden - The Period Revolutionary

I do wish the dietary recommendations were a bit more realistic. Majority of people, myself included, don't have the time or money for lamb shanks and salmon steaks as regular dinners (same for the breakfast and lunch suggestions), just saying. I felt that I had to disregard most of the diet suggestions and will have to figure out my own system for that. It seems geared toward people who have a good chunk of money and time, which I doubt is the majority of readers. I am going to guess that this will probably be one of the most formative books I ever read in my life. I don’t know that it’s necessarily the best book out there on the topic, but because it’s the first one for me (you better believe I have like 8 more on hold at the library) it’s the one that is going to shift my thinking the most. This is not the kind of book that you necessarily want to let all your friends on goodreads know that you have read. But I want to give it a review, because it is an amazingly helpful and empowering book, and I believe that all women should read it.

Hormone Repair Manual: Every woman's guide to healthy hormones after 40

Granted, it sounds like I may have to permanently give up (Holstein) cow’s dairy, gluten, sugar, and alcohol to eliminate my migraines and other PMS and sleep issues. But at 36 I am starting to seriously consider what I am willing to sacrifice for my health instead of just being like “but I love cheese too much, the migraines are worth it!”. I love pizza but is it worth it if it is giving me insomnia and migraines and making me super tired? (And if I can still have delicious delicious buffalo mozzarella and pecorino romano, who even cares?)