What Are Hormones? Your Foundation for Understanding Hormonal Health

Before you can make sense of symptoms, track patterns, or understand conditions like PCOS or perimenopause, you need to grasp the basics: What are hormones? How do they work? And why do they matter so much?

Hormones 101 is your endocrine system crash course – the educational bedrock of everything on this site. Think of this section as your personal guide to understanding your body’s most powerful chemical messengers, translated from complex medical terminology into clear, accessible language you can actually use.

Here, we break down how these tiny molecules coordinate hundreds of essential processes: metabolism, growth, stress response, sleep, mood, and reproduction. You’ll discover major hormones like insulin, cortisol, estrogen, and testosterone, plus lesser-known players like ghrelin and leptin. Learn how the “lock and key” receptor system works, what “hormonal balance” actually means, and why understanding these fundamentals matters.

This foundational knowledge transforms confusion into clarity, giving you the vocabulary to describe what you’re experiencing and preparing you for more productive conversations with your healthcare provider. Ready to demystify your endocrine system? Start here.