Definition
The danger of blaming everything on hormones is the tendency to explain complex human experience — fatigue, sadness, irritability, cognitive change — through hormones alone, thereby missing other real contributors and other real treatments.
Why it matters
This framing is common in both dismissive medicine ("she’s just hormonal") and in wellness overreach ("balance your hormones and everything resolves"). Both errors harm.
The Science
Complex human experience is almost always multi-causal. Hormones matter. So do sleep, relationships, meaning, biology beyond hormones, and social context. Reducing to any one lens produces incomplete care.
The NSI Perspective
NSI holds anti-reductionism as care. “It’s hormones” and “it’s not hormones” are both usually oversimplifications.
Clinical Implications
Careful clinicians hold multiple hypotheses simultaneously and test them systematically.
Practical Application
When someone hands you a single-cause explanation for something complex, ask what else might be true.
References
- 1.Ussher JM. Managing the Monstrous Feminine: Regulating the Reproductive Body. Routledge; 2006.