AHS19

Hormone replacement therapies have massively increased in popularity in recent years, and are recommended by paleo proponents, self-hackers, sex educators, and prescribed by doctors, psychiatrists and gynecologists. But scientific research on HRT remains divided on the question of its potential health risks, while ideal ‘normal’ hormone levels assumed in the notion of it as ‘therapeutic’ remain dubious. From a historical perspective, such therapies represent a far more aggressive manipulation of the endocrine system than the botanical agents used across time and place to support vigor, cognition, athleticism or libido. But equally historically novel is the hormonal soup in which we all live today as a result of the exogenous hormones and endocrine-disruptive petrochemicals that have become a ubiquitous part of modern life. This paper will not argue for or against HRT but instead will map a wide set of biomedical and historical considerations for an informed decision about it.