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Aroused: The History of Hormones and How They Control Just About Everything by Randi Hutter Epstein
itsmecalib_'s review against another edition
2.0
What I Like:
* I learned A LOT.
* It is a good story-based way of explaining medical history.
* The history also touches on the culture of medicine at the time, like women who worked on this research but were never properly credited for their work, for example. Or how gay men were castrated and implanted with new testicles from heterosexual men when testosterone therapies were all the rage in the 1920s. Or how synthetic versions of testosterone and estrogen changed the trans community in the 1930s.
* My favorite chapter was on oxytocin.
* Swipe for a fun footnote added at the end of saying that rats don’t vomit.
What I Don’t Like:
* I do not think I had enough basic biological knowledge to fully grasp this book. That’s on me though, ha.
* I realize it has “history of hormones” in the subtitle, but it was probably 80% history and 20% what we know now. The history is definitely important, but I was left wanting to know more about the now.
* It could be sooo dry. And also very dense.
* I didn’t care for the way the book was structured. It would have made the most sense to me if it was broken down by hormone, but it wasn’t. I don’t know what the thinking behind the format was really.
Overall: ⭐️⭐️
I wanted to like it more than I did. I was too cocky on my biological understanding. My expectations were too high. It didn’t do it for me.
And another thing. Acknowledging I have zero medical training, my main take away is this: Endocrinology is a relatively new medical field and everything we thought we knew at any point in the last 100 years was later proven wrong so we think we know things now but that could be proven wrong later too. So.
* I learned A LOT.
* It is a good story-based way of explaining medical history.
* The history also touches on the culture of medicine at the time, like women who worked on this research but were never properly credited for their work, for example. Or how gay men were castrated and implanted with new testicles from heterosexual men when testosterone therapies were all the rage in the 1920s. Or how synthetic versions of testosterone and estrogen changed the trans community in the 1930s.
* My favorite chapter was on oxytocin.
* Swipe for a fun footnote added at the end of saying that rats don’t vomit.
What I Don’t Like:
* I do not think I had enough basic biological knowledge to fully grasp this book. That’s on me though, ha.
* I realize it has “history of hormones” in the subtitle, but it was probably 80% history and 20% what we know now. The history is definitely important, but I was left wanting to know more about the now.
* It could be sooo dry. And also very dense.
* I didn’t care for the way the book was structured. It would have made the most sense to me if it was broken down by hormone, but it wasn’t. I don’t know what the thinking behind the format was really.
Overall: ⭐️⭐️
I wanted to like it more than I did. I was too cocky on my biological understanding. My expectations were too high. It didn’t do it for me.
And another thing. Acknowledging I have zero medical training, my main take away is this: Endocrinology is a relatively new medical field and everything we thought we knew at any point in the last 100 years was later proven wrong so we think we know things now but that could be proven wrong later too. So.
sparkleworker's review against another edition
1.0
I was so excited to read this book, but really did not enjoy it. The first few chapters about the history of endocrinology were interesting, but felt as if they really needed an editor to keep the narrative on focus. The later chapters efforts to move topically through different medical applications of hormone therapies (to help people get pregnant, to help with gender transition, etc) seemed under-researched, and presented what felt like insufficiently critiqued mainstream social values.
Meh.
Meh.
mogffm3's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting history of the lack of bioethics & research ethics in the field of endocrinology.
Who knew they used to mail human pituitary glands in the regular USPS mail system? -- good times.
Who knew they used to mail human pituitary glands in the regular USPS mail system? -- good times.
cosmith2015's review against another edition
5.0
Pretty good review of the history of endocrinology and how businesses manipulate and distort scientific progress/discoveries. I really enjoyed the chapter on Testosterone.
I think my favorite part was Ms. Epstein included quite a few women.. normally they are overlooked.
I think my favorite part was Ms. Epstein included quite a few women.. normally they are overlooked.
erboe501's review
3.0
I love a good pop science book every now and then. This was a pretty good balance of human interest (doctors and patients who were involved) and science (some hormone stuff I really didn't follow). I learned stuff (my favorite thing to do!) about how hormones affect body size, gender expression, and height. I especially enjoyed the section about hormones and transgender people. Science's relationship to individuals with ambiguous sex organs has sometimes been pretty horrible and paternalistic. Today there are ongoing conversations about when hormone treatment for transgender children should start, before or after puberty. There are also debates about how long women should be on hormones to combat the effects of menopause. Ultimately, there's still a lot we don't know about how hormones affect us, but we've come along way from the voluntary vasectomies of the early 20th century that were meant to improve virility and make you more manly.
overduck's review against another edition
funny
informative
slow-paced
5.0
I started listening to this book just to fill time on my walks to class, and I was soon listening to it all the time. The amount of information shared in this book is phenomenal, and the stories had my jaw dropping multiple times. It was also applicable to my daily life; it's been nice knowing more about how my body works (and how scientists figured that out).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content
Moderate: Child abuse, Infertility, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Fatphobia and Homophobia
catseye6773's review against another edition
4.0
I love the story feel of this book. Like opening door an peeking in on history