Hormonal: How Hormones Drive Desire, Shape Relationships, and Make Us Wiser

(Paperback)

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Hormones don't make women irrational; they help women choose mates, compete with female rivals, produce healthy offspring, and conquer other biological challenges. With fresh insight, Martie Haselton explains how the fertility cycle has evolved over millions of years into a fine-tuned signaling system. Among the fascinating findings: During ovulation, women's attractiveness peaks because their "mate search effort" is turned on. Their walking gait, voice, skin condition, and dance moves are more alluring, and they wear more revealing clothes. They also tend to shop more. Being on the Pill affects women's preferences in men, and PMS may have evolved to get rid of boyfriends with unfit sperm. The research is provocative, but Haselton also presents practical advice for women to use their hormonal cycles to their advantage, helping them achieve success in their relationships, careers, and lives. Groundbreaking and counter-intuitive, HORMONAL will empower women everywhere to embrace their biology.

Reviews

Such common sense is, sadly, remarkable.

* Evening Standard *

'Haselton is part of a new conversation that is emerging; she is a pioneering researcher pushing the politics of hormones in a new direction.'

* Observer *

'In her book she shows that there are no simple answers, but lots of fascinating possibilities, when we start to think about the biological aspects of our sexual lives.'

* The Sunday Times *

What a refreshing book. Finally, a feminist with the courage to discuss women not as victims of their hormones but as elegantly built captains of their minds and lives.

* Helen Fisher, author of The First Sex and Why Him Why Her *

'A very detailed and fascinating book which explores hormones to different level. Many women (and men) should read this to understand how womens hormones can have both negative and positive effects on our lives.'

* Dr Louise Newson, the Menopause Doctor *

'Anchored in deep science, Haselton takes the reader on a mesmerizing tour from the stirrings of puberty to the aftermath of menopause, from sexual fantasies to the ways in which women often call the shots in the game of mating.'

* David M. Buss, author of The Evolution of Desire *

'Haselton shows there are no simple answers - but lots of fascinating possibilities - when we start to think about the biological aspects of our sexual lives.

* Alice Dreger, author of Galileo's Middle Finger *

'In Hormonal, Martie Haselton gives us a brave and fascinating tour of what we know we know about sex differences, but are often afraid to discuss. Read it, whether or not you have a uterus.'

* am Harris, author of five New York Times bestsellers and host of the Waking Up podcast *

'This book is essential reading for bothwomen and men...Hormonal is engaging, clever,very funny at times, and always scientifically impeccable.'

* Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, author of New York Times bestseller Zoobiquity *

Your hormones have a lot to answer for, and you'll struggle to find someone to give you a better schooling than UCLA professor Martie Haselton.

* Women's Health *

'Deep, thoughtful, and eye-opening, this book teaches us that the more we know about hormones, the more we can manage our lives.'

* Maria Shriver, author of I've Been Thinking... *

'A smart and engaging scientific story about the amazing molecules that drive our behaviour.'

* Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness *

'Written with passion and wit, Hormonal provides important insights about the female experience.'

* Joan Silk, professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, and co-author of How Humans Evolved *

Author Bio

Martie Haselton, PhD,is the world's leading researcher on how ovulatory cycles influence women's sexuality. She is a professor at UCLA and the Institute for Society and Genetics, a Fellow of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, andco-editor ofEvolution and the Social Mind.