Hormones: Before and After Menopause
Good Fit
- Women approaching or going through menopause who want an alternative perspective on hormone therapy
- Readers curious about the "functional medicine" approach who want explanations that diverge from the standard medical system
- Readers who enjoy scientific argument woven together with the author's personal/professional story
Not a Fit
- Readers seeking an unbiased academic review of hormone therapy based solely on peer-reviewed sources — this book is grounded in one doctor's personal clinical experience and functional-medicine philosophy
- Readers who consider conventional medicine fully reliable and are skeptical of alternative frameworks — the book sharply criticizes "check-up culture" and some standard medical approaches
- Readers looking for concrete dosage/prescription advice — the book offers a general framework and emphasizes individualized planning with your own doctor
The book opens with the author's personal story — Mustafa Atasoy, who built his career as an ophthalmologist, writes that he went through a serious illness between 2011 and 2013, and chose to focus on his body's "natural health potential" rather than the standard medical approach — presenting this as the shortest possible definition of Functional Medicine.
Following this experience, he traveled to the US to train at several functional-medicine organizations, published a book for doctors in 2017, and founded the Functional Medicine Academy (FTA) in 2018 — the book frames this as a rapid, almost unexpected growth.
The "Introduction" lays out the central thesis: according to the author, health is not lost in the hospital — it is lost in daily life (food, inactivity, stress, poor sleep) — so instead of frequent check-ups, he recommends learning more about how your own body works.
The author claims that women are systematically under-informed about their own bodies (particularly the menstrual cycle and menopause), attributing this to a "cloud of misinformation" built up from myths and taboos going back to ancient Greek medicine.
The book's central argument: for most of human history, average lifespan was 45-50 years, meaning that for most women "the post-menopausal period" essentially did not exist — the modern desire to live decades past menopause is, evolutionarily, an entirely new demand, one that, in the author's view, "nature" never accounted for.
From this premise, the author takes neither a fully anti-hormone nor a fully pro-hormone stance — lifestyle (diet, movement, stress management, sleep) remains foundational, but he argues that hormone support, "used correctly," offers an unmatched degree of power, while also criticizing its misuse.
- The book interweaves personal narrative (the author's own health crisis) with clinical argument
- The language is direct, conversational, and frequently structured as Q&A (even the table of contents reflects this — real patient questions appear as subheadings)
- Functional-medicine terminology (FTA, "bioidentical hormones," "xenoestrogens") is explained as it's introduced, but the overall tone is polemical, critical of conventional medicine
Another book explaining hormones' effects on the female body/brain in accessible science-writing, aimed at a similarly broad audience
A more academic, evidence-based alternative perspective on hormone replacement therapy
In later chapters, the book covers the history of hormones given to (and withheld from) women in detail, the estrogen/progesterone balance, the concept of "bioidentical" hormones, and the context of the well-known WHI study, then moves into concrete clinical scenarios in a practical Q&A format (hot flashes, osteoporosis, testosterone in men, etc.).
The final section returns to the author's own health story ("My Story and Functional Medicine") and ends with practical advice on choosing supplements.
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