Like a finely-oiled machine: Self-help and the elusive goal of hormone balance

Abstract

For over twenty years, medical doctors writing self-help books for major trade publishers have promoted hormone balance as a desirable physical state, particularly for women. To understand how hormone balance is presented as an actualizable health objective, we examine self-help hormone balance books written by medical doctors and published between 2003 and 2021 by major American trade presses. Books deploy a model of endocrine determinism that defines most health conditions as the consequence of imbalanced hormones, particularly for women whose bodies are said to be perpetually at risk of imbalance. The pathway to balanced hormones, we find, involves intensive lifestyle changes and consumption practices that are unachievable except for the most privileged readers. Our analysis reveals hormone balance to be a fantasy biological state that reflects a fundamental tension in neoliberal modernity, that of bodies breaking down from the strain modern life places on individuals, and bodies needing to accomplish more under ever-demanding social and economic conditions. We conclude with a reflection on the semantic flexibility of “balance” as an ambiguous term that can signify the very opposite of harmony and moderation, and the role of medical doctors as self-help entrepreneurs.