The Female Brain

I am reading a book entitled "The Female Brain."  It came out a few years ago, but I apparently missed it somehow.  It's a scientific book that delves into to differences between the male and female brain as well as explaining exactly how the female brain works.  It explains all of this in a very easily understood, as well as logical, format.  It begins with infancy and goes through puberty, sex, pregnancy, motherhood, menopause, and post menopause.  It describes exactly what is happening to our brains during all of these stages.

Women are ruled by our hormones.  I know, you're nodding your head thinking no shit Sherlock.  Truly, we are ruled almost entirely by hormones.  They actually do more than influence how we react to life, they are the filter through which we experience life.  Hormones create our reality.  In the introduction of the book it states:

They (hormones) can shape a woman's values and desires, and tell her, day to day, what's important.  Their presence is felt at every stage of life, right from birth.  Each hormone state-girlhood, the adolescent years, the dating years, motherhood, and menopause-acts as fertilizer for different neurological connections that are responsible for new thoughts, emotions, and interests.  Because of the fluctuations that begin as early as three months old and last until after menopause, a woman's neurological reality is not as constant as a man's.  His is like a mountain that is worn away imperceptibly over the millennia by glaciers, weather, and the deep tectonic movements of the earth.  Hers is more like the weather itself-constantly changing and hard to predict.

Seriously, with an intro like that, how can you not be intrigued?  There is some extremely interesting information here, some of which makes me go 'aha!' and some of which makes me feel a bit more normal.  I'm hoping this will help me better understand myself, not to mention my daughter, mother, sister, girlfriends, etcetera.  I'm only about halfway through, but I have a feeling it won't be long before I finish.  I have to say I'm enjoying learning about what exactly happens in my brain each time I sit down to feed Connor, or what chemicals are released each time I cuddle Jordan.  It's also interesting to have it explained why men tend to excel in some areas and women in others.  It explains that, while men are not more or less intelligent than women, there are differences in the size of parts of their brains.  The area for language, memory, and observing others is much larger in women while men have two and a half times the brain space devoted to sexual drive and a larger center for action and aggression.  Apparently we are all still just cave people, wired for survival.  Women stick together, keep the peace, raise the children, and men fight off other men, make babies, and protect the family.

I think I'll hang on to this one.  Who knows, maybe I can get my husband to pick it up...