Myth
Only girls are hormonal.
Everyone has hormones! Hormones are part of the human experience. While you might experience a hormone cycle that works around ovulation and menstruation over the course of several weeks; your friends who have testes instead of ovaries have a 24-hour hormone cycle with waves of hormones from morning to night.
Myth
Hormones just make you mad and sad.
Hormones are a powerful force that are behind just as many positive emotions like happiness, joy, excitement, calmness, and inspiration! We often link having hormones with experiencing difficult feelings like anger and sadness, but hormones help us to feel the full range of emotions. At some points in the menstrual cycle we may have easier access to uplifting feelings, and at other points in the cycle we may find it harder to feel happy. Overall, hormones are just one part of our emotional experience, but it can help us so much to know more about their impact.
Myth
Teen years are the most hormotional.
The start of puberty can definitely make things feel more hormotional! Your hormones are working hard to support you through the stages of puberty to adulthood. You can go through just as many emotional changes as there are physical changes to your body and appearance. However, you will find you are sensitive to hormone changes again as an adult, for example, if you become pregnant, or when you enter a phase called perimenopause (in the years before menopause) in your 40s. So, while you might be going through some hormotional times, your mom might be too!
Myth
Hormonal feelings only happen when you have PMS.
PMS is premenstrual syndrome and is a term used to describe any symptoms that come before your period, but usually the emotional side of symptoms. Being hormonal is a natural state of human life, so it’s not just something that happens when you’re PMS-ing. You are also hormonal in your follicular phase and around ovulation! Our hormones fluctuate in waves throughout the cycle, and they are actually at their lowest levels during the period. The next time someone says you seem hormonal, ask them why that’s a bad thing!
Source
Warren MP, Brooks-Gunn J. Mood and behavior at adolescence: evidence for hormonal factors. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1989 Jul;69(1):77-83. doi: 10.1210/jcem-69-1-77. PMID: 2525135. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2525135/
