But, to suggest that our evolutionary past (writ into our very DNA, and the molecules like hormones that DNA provides the templates for) can bias or even limit our behavior, can bring a strong (dare I say 'visceral') negative reaction from progressives. It didn't seem inaccurate, nor would I expect a detailed history in a book focused on the author's experience, but I didn't learn from it to the same extent as from Anxiety for Beginners: A Personal Investigation.

After a year on the waiting list at my local NHS hospital, I embarked on the process of embryo freezing. Physical or emotional, the meaning of our pain has always been up for grabs, swallowed or dismissed by systems more powerful than us as individuals. The relationship trans women, trans men and non binary people will have with hormones is worth a book in itself so it’s not that I think it should have been covered extensively in this book - but talking about womanhood solely in terms of uterine reproductive systems is biological essentialism which this book otherwise demonstrates to be a sweeping generalisation of human experience! There are also certain studies and findings provided about men’s behaviours and “hormonal intelligence” and how those interact with female hormonal intelligence. Not the sort where the male struts, with his feathers wide as a palm tree, or with his really blue feet or around a stunning nest with shiny objects.By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. This book is underpinned by my own journey of becoming more knowledgeable about myself and accepting the emotional changes I feel over the course of my cycle, rather than seeing the changes as a pathology, forever scrutinising and labelling. Knowing why this is still the case in so many areas of society gives us something to work with and rally against.

I wonder though, if there is something wider we should be asking about how as a society we frame what women say and do when they are anything other than sanguine, nurturing and polite? Before the appointment I had somehow had the nous to start making a monthly diary (read: a series of symbols Sharpied on the Cliff Richard calendar my best friend bought me) and realised that this way of being and feeling crept up on me every couple of weeks, for a few days at a time. It is with a mixture of humanity and clear-sightedness that she analyses genetic and environmental influences, trauma, hormones, fertility, parenthood, medication, social stigma and language, all the while linking back to her own stories and those of fellow sufferers.Berman was later given an opportunity to walk back his statement, and chose not to, saying essentially that it was obvious that a woman shouldn't be trusted to make judgements like that with all those hormonal changes going on.