‘One of the books this year we are most excited about.’ – Lighthouse Bookshop

‘This powerful and timely collection shines a light on hormones and their relationship with our bodies, our lives, our selves and the stories we tell to make sense of it all. We would recommend So Hormonal to anyone with a body.’ – Authors Abigail Melton and Lilith Cooper

So Hormonal is a collection of personal essays detailing the various roles that hormones play in our daily lives. With over 30 authors from almost a dozen countries, this anthology strikes a balance between raw truths, tough challenges, and improbable elation.

Prefaced with a foreword from the author of Please Read This Leaflet Carefully, Karen Havelin, contributors discuss topics such as periods, steroid use, chronic illness, transitioning, men’s fertility and menopause with refreshing openness and honesty.

Expect pieces that celebrate the wonders and joys of hormones, while also challenging the stigma and discrimination routinely faced at the intersection of hormonal experiences. Compiled and introduced by Emily Horgan and Zachary Dickson, So Hormonal is an open call for new conversations about our hormones.

Essays include:

Foreword by author Karen Havelin

No Country for Neurodivergent Women: Addressing Undiagnosed ADHD and Cluster Headaches by Donna Alexander

The Waiting Room: Fighting For Trans-Inclusive Healthcare by Hidden Ink Child

Getting Off the Back Foot with Male Fertility Health by Tyler Christie

The Self-Made Body: Personal Growth and Steroids by Michael Collins

Notes from a Medical Menopause: There’s a Tea for That by Alexia Pepper de Caires

‘Man... I Feel Like a Woman’ A Trans Woman’s Oestrogen Therapy to Treat Gender Dysmorphia by Kacey de Groot

Roaccutane Tubes: On Navigating Puberty Hormones and Bodily Changes in the Wake of Sexual Abuse by Madeleine Dunne

Withholding: An Experience of Diabulimia by Clare Marie Edgeman

Don’t Tell Me to Calm Down: The Politics of Stress, Rest, and Lion Taming by L C Elliott

Telling Hormonal Stories by Sonja Erikainen, Andrea Ford, Roslyn Malcolm and Lisa Raeder

Meron: Breaking Free From the Maria Clara Ideal in Filipino Culture by Rita Faire

Dear Lexi: A Letter to a Friend About PMDD by Tomiwa Folorunso

Let’s Make a Baby (With Science) by Erica Gillingham

The Feminine Chaotic: Endocrine Disorders, the Feminine Identity, and Queer Culture by L j Gray

Blood is Back: How my Knowledge and Experience of Periods was Revolutionised, While I Wasn’t Having Them by Rachel Grocott

My Anxiety Is Part of My Identity by Toonika Guha

Wanna See My Party Trick? *Stops Taking Testosterone* by James Hudson

An Impersonal History of Self-Medication by Kate Kiernan

I’m Wearing Docs, Michael: On Thyroids, Tallness and Teenage Suffering by Aifric Kyne

Spinning through Fog (High Salt Content): Addisons’s Disease and Hormonal Treatment by Ali Maloney

Everything and Nothing: On Pregnancy and Depression by Fiadh Melina

Ten Years in the Making: Conversations with Partners About Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome by Sonali Misra

Clot: Pulmonary Embolisms and the Pill by Rachel Moss

Mood Swings and Misunderstandings: The Complexities of ‘Teenage Hormones’ by Cathy Naughton

Period, the End: Sixty Years of Learning by Sigrid Nielsen

What If I’m Not Just a Massive Bitch? Redefining Self with Severe PMDD by Heather Parry

‘Wait. I’m Not Finding a Heartbeat’ Speaking Out on Baby Loss by Laura Pearson

The Puberty That Wasn’t Supposed to Exist: Navigating Growing Up Intersex by Maya Posch

Blood and Bone: Osteoporosis at 23 by Georgia Priestley

What a Difference a Day Makes: How my Middle-Aged Zest for Sex was a Catalyst for Change by Lins Ringer

A Period Piece: On PCOS, PMDD and the NHS in 2020 by Jo Ross-Barrett

Change: The Bitter Pill Medicine Must Continue to Swallow by Annabel Sowemimo

If Rabbits, Why Not Women?: Living in a Woman’s Body Shaped and Kept Together by the Inventions of Men by Jeanne Sutton

Three Magic Days: Celebrating the Curious Power of Hormones by Alice Tarbuck

Banana-Leaf Poultices: Black British Attitudes to Healthcare and Medication by Rianna Walcott

LLETZ, a Locus: Reconfiguring My Body as a Body That Will Bleed by Anna Walsh