Of Stocks and Hormones: Why Your Ovaries Are Like the Dow

Starting a company is always difficult; starting one during the great recession is just mad. And then to launch the website and blog days following one of the largest stock market downturns in history…well that’s just damned unfortunate. Or is it? Maybe there is no better time to build something than when everything else is failing.

Why talk about the market as an introduction to a website about women’s hormones? In some strange way there are similarities. A negative earnings report from one company or civil unrest halfway around the world can send the entire U.S. market into chaos for reasons that even renowned economists can’t completely explain. Hormones have similar, intricate connections with one another. Even a small change in one hormone can cause widespread disruptions throughout the endocrine system and have major health consequences. And much like market fluctuations, even experts have a hard time explaining exactly what happened.

The market is fluctuating wildly because of underlying structural inequities and a failure to measure and manage the appropriate indices. Women’s health suffers because of inequities in funding and access and the failure to measure and manage the appropriate indices – hormones. While pundits and politicians are eager to assign blame for the latest economic crisis, debates in women’s hormone research often devolve into accusations of ‘fringe science’ and ‘poor methods’. We all see the same problem, but we argue over ideology instead of just doing something about it.

At Lucine, we’re doing something. We’re launching a company devoted entirely to understanding women’s hormone health…in the worst economy since the great depression. Neither the puns nor the obstacles escape us.

So here we are, at the inaugural publication of Hormones MatterTM. We don’t have all the answers. We don’t know if what we’re doing will work. All we know is that it’s time to act. And we need your help.

As a first step, we are changing the conversation. I think, as women, we can all agree; hormones matter. It’s a simple concept, but one not readily accepted in all circles. Once we show that hormones matter, then we can move to the next premise; stuff that matters merits research, measurement and, above all, respect.

Respecting hormones, is an odd notion to be sure, but if we are to move from BEING HORMONAL to hormonal beings, then we have to respect the stubborn complexity of women’s (and men’s) hormones. We must begin tackling the big questions rather than just brushing them off as ‘it’s her hormones’. Well, duh. Of course it’s her hormones. Can anyone tell us which hormones, doing what, where and why? Can anyone predict and then prevent PCOS, endometriosis, infertility, menorrhagia, dysmenorrhea or any of the other common conditions afflicting millions of women? Generally, the answer is no.

And so as we begin this journey, we ask that you join the conversation, tell us how hormones have affected your life, so that we may listen and learn. More importantly, share your stories, so that others may learn. Lucine means bringing to light. Help us bring hormone health to light.

The economy may crash around us and the politicians may squander opportunity upon opportunity to move beyond ideology, but from this point forward, Hormones Matter.