Packed with many ‘aha’ moments. Everything a woman needs to know.
Feature image credit: Simon & Schuster
Back in 2022, Dr Karen Coates and Sharon Kolkka published a handbook for women, How to Be Well. While hormonal health was briefly addressed in that guidebook, it was only one aspect of the health advice provided. By contrast, their latest publication, Hormonal Harmony, specifically focuses on the changing role of hormones throughout women’s lives, and how best to manage these changes.
The co-authors of the book come from different disciplines. Sharon Kolkka has a wellbeing background and has spent her career teaching evidence-based relaxation methods and supporting people to live empowered lives. Dr Karen Coates, meanwhile, is an integrative medicine doctor, specialising in nutritional and environmental medicine. The dual authorship gives us readers a holistic perspective and, as such, is suitable for a broad audience.
I found having the two voices useful, as it combines a doctor’s approach with the voice of lived experience. It reminds us women to trust our intuition, since there is science behind some of the age-old wisdom. The authors critically examine the data and recognise that we are often invalidated by doctors and face a medical system that usually dismisses our concerns. I most appreciated the guidance on how to advocate for yourself in medical settings, for example knowing which tests to ask your GP for, as generalised methods can often miss what is truly relevant. In addition, the inclusion of accessible remedies is greatly appreciated.
There were pages and paragraphs that I screenshotted and sent to friends as I went through the book – namely the ‘aha’ moments. For example, when I read the section about hormones causing irritability, I thought of a friend who says she’s angry about 50% of the time. I was slightly amused to see it described so clinically, rather than emotionally, as her husband might describe her moods.
There are four main parts. Part One, the hormonal journey, covers the five key stages of a woman’s life, from puberty through to the age of wisdom. Part Two focuses on the hormonal health pillars and is a general guide on hormonal well-being. Part Three covers specific health challenges throughout each of the different stages and how best to manage them. Finally, Part Four explores who your hormonal support team is. The inclusion of patients’ real-life stories breaks up the factual data as it is structured as an integrated, end-to-end guide. Although the book is designed to be read sequentially, with each concept building on the last, it is also effectively split into an easy reference guide, thanks to the multiple headings in each part.
As it is a book you read from start to finish, some things you may have already worked out yourself, but the great thing is having it all in one guide. Endless Google searching gets exhausting because there are just too many opinions and sorting through the mess is hard. This makes it an essential guide for all of us ladies, and so is well worth its price.
Reviewed by Rebecca Wu
The views expressed in this review belong to the author and not Glam Adelaide, its affiliates, or employees.
Distributed by: Simon & Schuster
Released: November 2025
RRP: $59.99
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