Sexy Hormones: Unlocking the Secrets to Vitality.

Sexy Hormones is a strange book. It is aimed at women to help improve their “sexy hormones” and thus their life, but it doesn’t seem to know quite what it wants to be: a book on alternative medicine or a lifestyle-advice and self-help book.

It is divided into 10 chapters and has a table of contents, index, and reference section. The first five chapters are about hormones, hormone testing, bioidentical hormones, and hormonal imbalance. They form the “medical” portion of this book. The remaining chapters offer lifestyle advice on the following: diet, exercise, sex, and mental health.

The first half of the book includes a very thorough explanation of how hormones work, why hormone testing is important, what bioidentical hormones are, how they can be used to restore hormonal balance to women in all stages of life, and why they are better than conventional hormones for hormone replacement therapy (HRT). There is actually too much detail in this first half because it is quite easy for the reader to get lost in the jargon being used. The second half of the book is clearer, it provides nutritional counselling and an exercise regimen designed to boost sexy hormones, as well as advice on psychological and physical means of enhancing sexual pleasure.

The advice in the second half of Sexy Hormones seems quite reasonable, with the exception of the blanket rejection of GMO foods; but the first half makes health claims concerning the safety and efficacy of bioidentical hormones that are not sufficiently supported by the current evidence in the medical literature. The authors acknowledge this lack of evidence but attribute it to the lack of profit to be made from bioidentical hormones (compared to other hormone therapy), and continue to make unsubstantiated claims based mainly on their professional and personal experience. This is problematic given that the hormonal supplements they recommend are the personal brand one of the authors (Ms. Vanderhaeghe). 

The book is an extended sales pitch for the products that have been created by Ms Vanderhaeghe and therefore is not a reliable source of information for readers.