Hormonal & Metabolic Health

The books here cover perimenopause and the years when nothing shows up cleanly on a blood test, menopause itself, and premature menopause arriving decades early. Hormone replacement therapy has a book of its own — starting it, adjusting doses, and deciding against it — alongside accounts of bioidentical hormones and of low-dose testosterone for women, both areas where people describe very mixed experiences and very different conversations with their doctors.

On the metabolic side there are stories of insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, thyroid-related weight changes, and GLP-1 medication used for metabolic problems rather than for weight alone. Others deal with PMDD, estrogen dominance, cortisol and the flat exhaustion that follows a long stretch of stress, and with people trying to work with their cycle rather than against it. Each ebook holds fifty first-person accounts, so you get the disagreements as well as the patterns — useful if you are still trying to name what is happening, or supporting someone who is.

Where to start

• Before the Change: Perimenopause Stories — symptoms that arrive years before anything is named
• The Change: Menopause Experience Stories — sleep, mood, work and relationships
• Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) Horizons: Hormone Therapy Stories — for anyone weighing HRT up
• Early Change: Premature Menopause Stories — when it comes decades ahead of schedule
• Resisting Insulin Resistance: Recovery Stories — early metabolic warning signs and what people changed
• Cortisol Control: Stress Hormone Recovery Stories — exhaustion, stress and slow rebuilding