The Female Brain

Probably the best thing I learned from this book is just how much the female brain is constantly changing. I feel like I understand what is going on in my mind (and those of other women) so much better now, and what has been happening thus far in my life.
The author organizes the book very well, starting at the beginning of life and going through to post-menopause, and she explains her findings very clearly. The only "minus," in my opinion, is that she takes an evolutionary viewpoint, which discredits the reasoning behind some of her findings (because of my personal viewpoint on evolution), but for the most part it doesn't discredit her findings all together.

I recommend this book to anyone, whether you are a woman seeking to better understand how you work, or a man trying to understand women better. I am looking forward to her book on the male brain!

I enjoyed this book and its companion, The Male Brain. Dr. Brizendine presents a highly referenced study on the differences between the sexes. She explains the material well and uses case studies to support her conclusions. Somehow I'm having trouble convincing the three females in my family that this is a very interesting and informative read. Curious. And probably consistent with a woman's more intuitive and less analytical approach to the issue.

I loved this book. It really helped me undertand a)what mt preteen is going through, b)why for one week (each month) I'm extremely communicative and for another week I can't string a sentance together. I was really surprised by the negative reviews written here. I've recommended this book to all my girlfriends. I'm thrilled with it. It is difficult to find a brain-book that the non-medical community can understand and enjoy. It's a little dramatized with the narrative, but it has a ton of relevent information. I dog-eared about 50 pages.

Outstanding.

If you are female...read this book to better understand yourself and all the women/girls in your life. You will like yourself more as a result of this book and not think you are crazy.
If you are male...read this book to better understand and adapt to the needs of woman and girls. It will help you have more compassion for them and not put up with unkind behavior due to hormones!

This book gave a greater insight into the differences between male and female thinking. I realized that a lot of what I was going through with my wife was simply a matter of different brain circuitry. I recommend it for both men and women to read.

I have bought this book three times now because I keep giving copies away. I love this book! I gave one to my friend who wanted a fiction book, but I told her it reads like a novel, it is so well-written.
Brizendine breaks down how hormones shape our brains from embryo to old age, and how these hormones help create our realities. And she does this in an immensely entertaining way. This book was useful as a pregnant mother and now as a mother to a 5 year old girl. You had better believe I am going to be revisiting this when she hits puberty.

Unlike typical books that highlight female/male differences, this book is well referenced and not just the author's opinion. It is a book that reads like a novel despite the fact that it is a scholarly book on neuroscience.

I picked up this book after perusing the reviews and was definately not disappointed. If you are a woman, know a woman, or want to know a woman, then pick up this book and read it...cover to cover. For women, it will be a journey of self-discovery and enlightenment. For those who know women, it will shed some light on our daily struggles and "mood swings". For those who want to know a woman, this book will reveal us in all our complexity, simplicity, strength, and weakness. I can't give it enough stars!!!

The chemistry of the female brain is incredibly complex! This book explains the process and how the hormones of the body effect the behavior, choices and rationales for our "female" actions in a way that is understandable. It gives credibility to all the things that women know about their bodies and brains but which science and conventional medicine have ignored . It validates the physiological realities and "intuitions" that women experience which have historically been labeled by traditional medicine and psychiatry as anything other than a real measurable biological state. I have been a nurse for 40 years working with high school aged females for the last 10. I have been a daughter , had a daughter , been a mother of sons , a wife and a friend. This book nails the stages and changes I have experienced throughout my life to a tee! I think it should be required reading for males and females who want to understand how and why women are the way we are..........scientifically and measurably! It is a testimonial to the incredible role that chemistry , biology and evolution play in the female brain!

Every woman needs to know this information about herself. I found much new data here in an easy to read, enjoyable format.
Men could also use this information to help them understand how a woman's mind works an d the many physical factors that affect her behaviors and responses to others and the world.

The Female Brain was a wonderful read it was full of real, matter of fact iinformation. I really appreciated finding out how my brain was effected by hormones. It was so interesting. I would recommend it to women of all ages.

Absolutely amazing and informative without being overly academic or self indulgent. A book written to be used in everyday environments for families, teachers, the workplace and those who want to simply know more about how the brain influences behaviour.

Incredibly insightful. The author does an excellent job of using layman's terms to describe the science, while enhancing the tale with stories. Having this insight can make huge differences in the way one acts and responds to the highs and lows of their hormones.

I enjoyed this picture of how the female brain develops and changes through life. It helps me as a woman understand how brain changes and hormone fluctuations affect how we think. It also shows where females have advantages in processing information.

As a female interested in biological forces, this book offered tremendous insight into why I act and think the way I do. The Female Brain explains the female brain in an informative but witty way. In this review, I intend to educate readers on the details of the book to try to encourage everyone to read it. I believe this book will better prepare females for certain events in their lives, and possibly make life a little easier consequently. Dr. Brizendine writes in a humorous and fun fashion that keeps you entertained while learning. She also writes in a language in which the average reader can understand, even without any knowledge of the brain or biology in general.

Style/Structure
The book is broken into seven chapters representing different stages of female development as well as chapters on sex, love and trust, and emotion. The book starts with an introduction describing the history of the study of female brains and Dr. Brizandine's interest in it. The book emphasizes the large role hormones have on the female brain in regulation of emotions and how a female acts. She even includes a chart of the various hormonal changes in each stage of female life and the consequences these hormones have on the female. Each chapter is subsequently broken into different subsections, stressing important points of each topic. She uses stories of various patients of hers to elucidate women's actions and feelings during specific stages of life throughout the book. The book concludes with research on hormone therapy and the author's stance and experience with it.

Synopsis
In the first chapter titled "The Birth of the Female Brain", the author states that the brain of a fetus is the same in each gender until the eighth week of development in which if the fetus is a male, "a huge testosterone surge" kills cells in communication centers of the brain and increases cell growth in the aggression centers. According to the author, this causes one of the primary differences between male and female brains, leading to girls showing more empathy and cooperation with peers. Girls can even "hear a broader range of emotional tones in the human voice than can boys."

"Teen Girl Brain" relates initiation of the cycling of the hormones estrogen and progesterone to the actions of females during these tough years. She explains how the levels of hormones at various stages of the cycle lead from stress at one point to irritability at another. Also, the author explains how the hormones increase memory, the desire to talk, and sexual urges at various point during the cycle. The brain becomes sharper due to "a twenty five percent growth of connections in the hippocampus during weeks one and two [of the menstrual cycle]."

The chapter on love and trust focuses on subjects such as chemical attraction, the intricacies of the brain "in love", and evolutionary forces of mating and women's trust in men. The author emphasizes the effects that dopamine and oxytocin have on the brain, including affecting judgment and trust. The affect of hormones are so strong that " the brain circuits that are activated when we are in love match those of the drug addict."
The author also elaborates on different aspects of sex, delving into both research and evolutionary reasons of the female orgasm. This chapter also explores reasons behind female infidelity, suggesting that heightened detection of male pheromones right before ovulation may be a cause.

The chapter titled "The Mommy Brain" highlights the role of hormones on the female brain both during pregnancy and after the birth of the baby. Topics such as the pleasure of breast feeding, returning to work, and even the "daddy brain" are addressed. She mainly emphasizes the intimate connection between mother and child. For example, the mother can detect the smell of her baby with about ninety percent accuracy.

The chapter on emotion focuses on women's heightened emotional sense and how it affects various aspects. Women unconsciously participate in an act called "mirroring" in which involves imitating the facial expression of someone else in order to assess the other's emotions. She addresses the female's better emotional memory as well as her tendency to avoid conflict. Additionally, possible causes behind female's greater anxiety and depression than men are described.

Finally, "The Mature Female Brain" is all about the struggles women go through during their menopausal years. The author stresses the shock a female's body goes through during the withdrawal of hormones that have been affecting her body her entire life. This leads to increased ambition towards working and decreased responsibility in caring for the family. The author suggests hormone therapy as a way to reverse declining function of the brain such as the loss of memory.

Critique
I really enjoyed the author's use of stories of her patients because it kept the book more entertaining while providing situations that linked in well with the topic that she was covering. At first, I was worried that the book would be all facts and statistics but I was pleasantly surprised at how the author incorporated those stories as well as various other theories in biological science. For example, she links certain female tendencies to evolutionary forces such as the "fight or flight" response.

The book surprisingly contained a fair amount of information on the male as well. Most of these references were comparing the two sexes. At some points, I felt a bit of a feminist vibe in the way she talks about men, as most of her references imply ways in which females are better than males. However, I do not think the way in which she does this would offend the average male reader.

As a female, I found the chapter on love and trust to be particularly enthralling. I found the role of oxytocin and dopamine particularly interesting on the foundations of trust and happiness in relationships. One fact that I find very interesting is that hugging and cuddling cause a release of oxytocin in the brain which leads to the female trusting the man. The book provided me with greater insight into why I feel so in love with my boyfriend, no matter how crazy he drives me sometimes! As a biology major, I also enjoyed the connections the author made using ecology and evolution.

In relation to neuroscience, the book taught me more about the various regions of the brain and their various roles. However, the book most extensively covers the role of hormones on the brain. At first, I thought the author was using too much of a hormonal basis for female actions and emotions, but after reading more of the book I was happy to discover her incorporation of other elements such as ecology, genetics, and evolution. I believe she does a wonderful job in tying all of the information together in a logical way without any awkward transitions.

Recommendation
I encourage everyone to read this book as it has definitely become one of my favorites. Dr. Brizendine does a fantastic job at keeping the audience captivated so that you never want to put the book down. The book gave me significant insight into the large hormonal forces that guide female behavior. I think the book is a great read for both males and females so that each sex can have a greater understanding of the female and the biological forces that drive her.

This book gives biochemical and anthropologic reasons for the emotional and psychological differences that women have compared to men, from birth through old age. It's intriguing to read as a woman and I think it would give men a heck of a lot more insight into 'how we work.' It's a must read for women and men alike in all stages of life and/or a relationship.

As a psychologist, I thought I would know most of the information Dr. Brizendine provides. I was wrong. This book is so relevant and informative for women ,I recommend it highly. Olivia Slaughter, Ph.D.

Before I start, I should say that the easy 'layman' way that it is written is good making it accessible to the general public. It also has very good scientific research behind the book, and Brizendine's credentials are superb. Other than a couple of scientific oversights (like having two X chromosomes creates 'more feminine' brain pattern as opposed to a single X chromosome, which it does not), she does a relatively good job at keeping her facts straight.

The problems I find with this book is that it is based on generalizations, mainly stemming from the levels of hormones, and the fact that it discounts the effects of nurture/environmental factors on the individual. Brizendine portrays the brain as having two switches: male and female, where the truth is much more complex. Although we may be coded genetically for a surge of natal testosterone (male) or varying estrogen levels overtime (female), the fact is that these hormone levels are volatile and often erratic. One male is not necessarily going to be exposed to as much natal testosterone as another, making one more 'male' than the other. Again, Brizendine addresses how some women express too many hormones in extreme PMS, yet she fails to recognize the women who express too little, or even what this expression variation means for different people's brains. In summary, she makes brain gender seem like a toggle when it is really a slider. Enviormental factors, in the womb for example, also play a large role. Many females who grow up to be 'tomboyish' or more 'male' may have been immersed in residual testosterone in the mother's womb from previous births. As a director of a Hormone clinic, I hope she would have picked some of this up.

She also fails to acknowledge the great significance of nurture, which if I tried to elaborate in this book review, it would take pages. I will leave it simply that her neurological knowledge must be addled in some way to discount the value of nurture on the way the brain works.

In addition, many of her 'facts' in her chapter are not represented by statistical data, but anecdotes of her personal cases. It adds a nice touch of 'pathos' but does nothing on the scientific level. Interestingly, as another reviewer pointed out is that very few reputable scientists have come out and supported her work, and the few who have come out have done so in a reserved fashion. This could be due to the informal nature of her book, the lack of conclusive experimental data, blatant generalizations or a combination of the three.

Overall, Brizendine makes a nice read, which is backed up by seemingly pure scientific knowledge, yet it is severely lacking in the foundation on which the book is built upon. If she addressed the facts like 17% of people are of the opposite brain gender, maybe I would have rated her book higher.

This is an excellent book with many insights about both the female and male brain. The writing makes for easy reading that is equally enjoyable for either women or men. The author approaches this subject at the hormonal and brain function level. She shares how a few hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, oxytocin), neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin) and their regulators within the brain (prefrontal cortex, hypothalamus, amygdale) dictate our social behavior. Hormonal levels and their regulators are radically different between men and women. Thus, the genders behave differently. These hormones have a life cycle of their own defining specific passages in a women's life including, puberty, and the various menopause stages (peri-, -, and post-).

The female brain is different on several counts. It has larger resources dedicated to communication, language, emotions, and memory related to such emotions. This is manifested by a larger hippocampus and 11% more neurons dedicated to language capabilities. On the other hand, women's brain resources dedicated to sex is barely more than a third as large as men's. Testosterone level is a key differentiator between male and female as it is so much lower in women. As a result, women are more cooperative, less competitive, less aggressive, more concerned with emotion of others, and more focused on the group than the self alone. Men are 20 times more aggressive. The population of the prison system reflects that. Men think about sex far more often and their sex drive is far higher. That's why men rape women and not the reverse.

The chapter on the teen girl brain is excellent. It explains a great deal about the emotional roller coaster associated with a surge in hormonal levels. The differentiation between the female and male brain at that age is in full swing. Girls speak faster and two to three times as much as boys. Girls need social connection and ongoing communication opportunities. When those are lacking, a girl after puberty is twice as vulnerable as a boy to depression. On the other hand, because of lesser developed communication skills boys are a lot more at risk for autism.

The chapter on motherhood is also fascinating. It describes how a woman's brain is altered forever after motherhood to enhance the survival of her children. The author analyses the related metamorphosis of the women's brain in technical detail at the hormonal level. In plain English, whatever nature wants you to do (reproduce and mother) it does by generating plenty of natural feel good drugs (dopamine and oxytocin).

The author addresses at length love and sex. Her findings based on neuroscience confirm some the clichés we have that women look for economic stability and loyalty in men. While men look for, well the obvious: Scarlett Johansson. Women's focus is nesting. Men's is fertility. However, Brizendine indicates things get more complex. Women do want long-term relationship with loyal and caring providers. However, they occasionally don't mind reproducing with a philanderer that appears to have superior genes. Brizendine states that 10% of children are fathered by such philanderers without the husband knowledge. Superior genes are characteristics of males who have greater symmetry in their body and face. In plain English, this means men who are more handsome. Apparently, this has been confirmed by countless studies. Yet, this statement is perplexing. Is Brad Pitt really more symmetric than Danni de Vito? From a geometric standpoint, this could be a close call. So, what does symmetry really has to do with handsomeness? Also, interestingly enough the loyalty of a male seems incredibly predetermined by the length of a certain gene (vasopressin) the longer the more loyal.

The chapter on menopause and the mature women is also interesting. The changing hormonal balance, including the drop off in estrogen, triggers a marked reduction in nurturing behavior. Nurturing children and husband becomes really tasking. The frustration with this situation engenders a need for self-actualization. This is especially pronounced if the kids are out to college and the husband is retired and expects three meals a day. The terms of the marriage need to be renegotiated if the marriage is to survive. Counter to the public's perception it is women who initiate divorce 65% of the time among couples over 50.

Early in the book Brizendine addresses Lawrence Summers remark that women are underrepresented in mathematics and scientific fields because when comparing men vs women, even though their average ability may be the same, women's variability (or standard deviation) was lower. Thus, few women reached the top echelons of those fields. Brizendine rebuts Summers by indicating that girls and boys' ability and variability are the same through their teen years. Brizendine states that fewer women reach the top echelon in the mentioned fields because their brain wiring makes them more social and they do not seek lonesome (scientific) pursuits. However, a review of the 2006 College Board SAT results contradicts Brizendine as it shows that boys have both a higher average and higher standard deviation on math score vs girls. As a result, twice as many boys than girls score greater than 750 on the SAT math section. Thus, in this one case Brizendine's arguments are not convincing. This does not detract from the overall excellent intellectual quality of this book.

This book explains the hard and soft wiring in both women and men. It is taken from over 1200 research studies. It is fascinating and uses regular language, not heavy medical or research language. It is relatively short and an easy read.

Still reading this one. It's got good information and should be read by everyone over the age of 14. If you want a better understanding of your girlfriend, wife, daughter, or yourself, this is a good place to start.

An excellent book; witty and informative. It explains what you always suspected but never knew why. Now you know that you are not alone in the ways you feel and the ways you change and best of all you will learn the reason your brain works as it does. Well written and easily understandable.