With medical and journalism degrees and as Writer-in-Residence at Yale Medical School, Epstein brings a savvy background to a book rich in clever digressions as well as scientific know-how and historical fact ... A history of endocrinology as entertaining as it is informative, Aroused adroitly covers the basic science, clinical application and dubious commercialization of hormones.

This is a well-written and informative book about the history of hormone research. The interested reader will learn how scientists have come to understand what hormones are and how they function. But it is also deeply disturbing: for what this history entails, for how the author tells it and for what she leaves out ... Even more disturbing than reading about these practices is that for the most part Epstein shrugs them off, saying that the physicians involved were well intentioned, that what they did was appropriate for their day or that they did what they could with the information they had. These were the 'best practices of the time.' It was 'just the way things were.' But that’s not quite true: Some of these practices were questioned even at the time. And it doesn’t take hindsight to recognize hubris ... Epstein contrasts 'quackery' with 'legitimate research,' and 'craziness' with 'serious science,' but the crucial question of how to distinguish between them is unaddressed ... Epstein also elides the problem of hormone-disrupting chemicals ... Surely a book on the history of hormone research should have something to say about that.

Epstein, a medical writer and M.D., tells the history of hormone research from that first rooster experiment, but cleverly moves back and forth through time, avoiding any hint of dry recitation. She explores the scientists who discovered and deciphered the effects of important hormones, as well as the personal stories of how people’s lives have been profoundly changed by these chemicals ... In the end, Epstein paints a portrait of how hormones control us and how we yearn to control them. Perhaps appropriately, it’s a history marked by our shifting moods.

Where the book really takes off is in its pointed examination of how social norms and sexual politics have interacted with new discoveries in science ... Aroused shows how hormone and surgical therapies hardened a binary gender system ... Ultimately, the message of Aroused is that we know a lot about hormones, but definitely not everything, which might well have been its subtitle. Enter the quacks, frauds, careless researchers, and others looking for quick payoffs from new discoveries. In nearly every chapter, Epstein stresses the vulnerability of new scientific information about the maintenance of the human body to industry objectives ... Epstein’s dry wit is put to best use in her chapter on menopause ... she does offer some encouraging news: a few years of hormone therapy to ease the symptoms of menopause is unlikely to hurt you. The establishment has been back and forth on that point a few times, and, she acknowledges, who knows? It may swing the other way again. We have to muddle through with the research we’ve got at the moment. If that isn’t exactly comforting, Epstein’s writing so colorfully about the subject certainly is. I felt I had a friend guiding me through the terrifying waters of my own biology.

The author introduces the colorful researchers who performed experiments that would never be permitted with current ethical regulations ... Readers learn of snake oil cures and the important therapeutic roles that hormones play ... An engaging book of medical history that teaches readers about important aspects of physiology.

A tour of the history of endocrinology, highlighting progress but also the hype that has promoted the curative abilities of hormones ... A fine, poignant survey of 'what makes us human, from the inside out.'

...a lucid and entertaining look at the social and scientific history of endocrinology ... Epstein frames science in human terms, delving into such topics as eugenics, medical errors, and scams like vasectomy as a way to boost sex drive. The author’s beguiling prose...makes for a lively and accessible introduction to hormones and the important work they do in the lives of humans.