I love to read books. Always have, always will. Whenever I see book recommendations on the forums I frequent, I usually end up buying them or at least looking them up on Amazon.
On a recent perusal of r/pcos, I came across a few people raving about a book called, Period Repair Manual by Lara Briden. It sounded right up my alley so I bought it.
In this post, I will provide some information on the book as well as my review on it!
About the author
The author of this book is named, Lara Briden. She is a naturopathic doctor with her own practice that focuses on hormonal health in women.
Lara has racked up a great amount of experience in this field and claims to have had many happy patients.
What a naturopathic doctor is
This type of medical practice is based on self-healing through more natural methods. These include botanical medication, special diets, meditation, yoga and more.
To become a naturopathic doctor, one must start off with a bachelor’s degree that includes pre-medical courses. They then will enter a naturopathic medical school which is another four years.
Unfortunately, this type of medicine is considered non-evidence based. The terms, “quackery” and “scammy” are thrown around a lot in conversations about it.
About the book
The Period Repair Manual is a good sized book with a lot of content presented. The overall goal of the book is to help women fix hormonal problems, naturally.
There are different topics that the author touches on. Here are summaries of the information presented in each area:
- Hormonal/menstrual cycle information: Lara goes in depth about the science behind our hormones and cycles. This includes what hormones our bodies produce, what our menstrual cycles consist of, what our periods should be like and what happens to our hormones as we age.
- Problems with our menstrual cycles and conditions: The book talks a lot about things that can go wrong in our cycles (i.e. severe cramps and bad PMS) as well as conditions that can make our hormones get wacky. Some of these conditions mentioned are PCOS, endometriosis, inflammatory conditions, thyroid issues, gut microbiome imbalances, perimenopause and menopause.
- Treatments: Lara has a lot of treatments that she recommends for the aforementioned problems and conditions. Changing up our diets is something she makes a case for. She also talks a lot about how avoiding wheat and dairy products. Some examples of supplements that she prescribes to her patients include turmeric, vitamin D, vitamin B6, NAC, licorice and many more.
Don’t be fooled when looking at these three short summaries-there is a ton of content! The book also includes resources and a list of the supplements she mentioned along with what they can be used for.
My personal review of the book
The Period Repair Manual was an enjoyable read for me. It was very interesting and I could not put it down.
I loved that the scientific explanations are written in a way that many people can understand. This means that readers will not feel alienated which is a wonderful thing. Also, the way that she breaks up the text using subheadings increases its readability even more.
I have done a lot of reading about hormones but I definitely learned new things from Lara! For example, I experience post-menstrual syndrome which isn’t talked about a lot. In this book, I found out that it is because of my anovulatory cycles (cycles where I failed to ovulate). The author says that means that a lot of the periods I get are not actually true bleeds. Wow!
Reading about supplements is fun for me. I have heard of all of the ones that Lara mentioned but I did not know exactly what they could be used for in regards to hormones. For example, zinc is something the author talks about as being helpful for PCOS and PMS. I had no idea about that!
In my opinion, her stance on diet might be off putting to some. She seems to be against low carb diets which has shown to really help women with PCOS. Also, the “good” diet menu example she gives pretty much only works for those that make a lot of money.
The sections about detoxing the body made me cringe honestly. I have heard about detoxification from quite a few health gurus and it always seemed fake to me.
Lara talked about there being four types of PCOS. This was very interesting to me. I am still not sure which type I would fall under though.
The last thing I want to mention regarding what I liked about the book, is the review at the end. There is so much information that the author provides so it is nice to have some main take-away points.
I would recommend it
The Period Repair Manual had a lot of content and was really interesting. If someone is struggling with their hormones and cycle, this may be a great resource for them.
The author offers many treatments for the variety of issues that women can have. In my opinion, it is probably not a good idea to go out and buy every supplement she mentions though. One should do some extra research on them first.
If birth control is something that a woman wants to be on, that is their choice. This book is just giving alternative options.
My rating: 4.5/5
As always, thanks for reading!
Lara Briden’s blog: https://www.larabriden.com/blog/
#womenshealth #books #bookworm #hormones #menstrualcycle #periodproblems #pms #health #supplements
