Keeping it real,
keeping you educated.
Is this normal?
The judgment-free guide from Dr. Jolene Brighten to everything health class left out — medically accurate answers about your hormones, your period, and your pleasure, with a 28-day plan to take back your cycle and dozens of charts, checklists, and diagrams to guide you.
- Your doctor called your PMS, your cramps, or your mood swings “normal” — and sent you home without answers.
- You’ve wondered about your period, your libido, or your body but felt too embarrassed to ask anyone.
- You were handed a prescription for a symptom no one ever explained the cause of.
- Painful sex, exhaustion, or a cycle that seems to run your life — and you’ve been told it’s “just part of being a woman.”
- You want to understand your hormones and your body, but every answer online contradicts the last.
Every one of these is your body asking for answers you were never given — and that most women are quietly taught not to question.
It may be common. That doesn’t make it normal. And it’s not in your head.
The straight talk doctors wish they could give every patient
As a functional medicine expert, I have heard it all. But sometimes it takes years of working with someone before they feel comfortable to ask the uncomfortable questions. Instead of spending endless hours searching the web or wading through awkward conversations, Brighten’s new book answers everything you’ve ever wanted to know about your body — sex, hormones, periods, etc. Nothing is off the table as she provides real answers to the often unasked questions along with actionable steps on how to move forward. It’s like having a conversation with your most trusted friend… one that happens to have a medical degree.
Finally, all the information you should have learned in health class in school but didn’t, in one resource. Dr. Brighten answers all the questions about your body, your periods, and sex you have likely been too embarrassed to ask.
A delightful and feisty book from the indomitable Dr. Jolene Brighten. I’m a fifty-something women’s health expert, and I still learned a thing or two!
This is truly THE guide book you’ve been looking for to answer all those questions we SHOULD have been taught in school. Curious about your breasts, libido, vaginal health, or hormones? Dr. Brighten answers them one by one in a down-to-earth, relatable way that’s both helpful AND reassuring. This is my favorite go-to recommendation when women slide into my DMs asking “Hey, is this normal?”
The book that finally says it out loud
Is This Normal gives you the medically accurate answers you’ve been dying to know but were too embarrassed to ask — and busts the myths women have been told for generations. From PMS and period problems to abnormal discharge, pain in the bedroom, and how your cyclical hormones shape your daily life, nothing here is too TMI.
The truth is, while common, many of the hormone concerns women live with can be supported with the strategies in this book. Consider it the adult guide to everything your health-ed teacher should have covered about how your body works — but didn’t — from a trusted physician and clinical sexologist.
- What’s actually normal for your cycle — and what’s worth paying attention to.
- How to work with your hormones instead of dreading them month after month.
- A judgment-free look at sex, pleasure, and the questions no one taught you to ask.
Mood swings, low desire, fatigue, painful periods, “down there” problems —
common, but that doesn’t make them normal.
For generations, women have been handed the same answer for symptoms that disrupt their lives: that’s just normal. Too often it’s a way to end the conversation instead of finding the cause.
Your symptoms are clues. They point to what’s happening underneath — and, more often than most women are told, to something you can actually do something about.
Is This Normal gives you the same framework Dr. Brighten uses with her patients: a clear, 28-day plan to understand your body, support your hormones, and finally know the difference between what’s common and what’s normal for you.
Is This Normal spills the tea on
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01
Why “female problems” aren’t your fate
Being born with ovaries doesn’t mean you have to live with PMS, mood swings, cramping, or low libido — and exactly what actually helps address these issues.
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02
How to make your hormones work for you
How to work with your cycle so your hormones feel like a superpower — instead of the monthly dread of unpredictable swings.
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03
The truth about your fertility
Why “you can get pregnant any time of the month” is a myth, how your fertility actually works, and how to use that knowledge — whether you want to get pregnant or avoid it.
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04
What a “normal” cycle really looks like
Why the textbook 28-day cycle isn’t what most women actually experience — and precisely what you need to know about what’s normal, and what’s not, for your cycle.
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05
Closing the pleasure gap
Why so many women aren’t having orgasms — and how to have more pleasure, and close that gap, in the bedroom.
The Is This Normal
companion resources.
The free companion materials that go with Is This Normal — the hormone symptom quiz, the 28-day meal plan and recipe guide, and the full library of downloadable guides. Tell us where to send them and they’re yours.
The Hormone Symptom Quiz
The same symptom assessment Dr. Brighten uses with her patients. Check your symptoms across 10 hormone areas and get guidance on what commonly drives them — and what can help.
The 28-Day Meal Plan & Recipe Guide
A full month of hormone-supportive meals and recipes to put the book’s 28-day plan into practice — so you’re never guessing what to cook.
The Downloadable Guide Library
Print-ready tools you’ll actually use:
- 10 Tips for Better Os
- Guide to Personal Lubricants
- Sources of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals
- Labs and Hormone Testing
Get the free companion resources
Tell us where to send them. Your hormone symptom quiz, 28-day meal plan, and every guide arrive by email — free, no purchase required.
You’re in. Check your inbox.
Your Is This Normal companion resources — the hormone symptom quiz, the 28-day meal plan, and every downloadable guide — are on their way to you right now.
Nothing there in a few minutes? Check your promotions and spam folders, or email [email protected] and we’ll sort it out.
Order from the retailer of your choice
Buying direct from DrBrightenEssentials.com supports Dr. Brighten’s work most directly. Prefer to listen or read on your device? The audiobook and ebook are available through Apple Books and Google Play.
Dr. Jolene Brighten
Recommended by the doctors women trust
Endorsed by New York Times bestselling physicians and clinicians around the world, Is This Normal has become the go-to guide for women who are done being dismissed.
Dr. Brighten is changing the conversation about the myths we’ve all been told about our bodies. Is This Normal is the guidebook we can all use to help our bodies thrive!
This book serves as a guiding light for all those who have felt alone in wondering if something was wrong with them. Dr. Brighten writes in such an accessible and comprehensive way that anyone would feel supported and empowered in taking charge of their health.
As a physician I have found that many of my patients struggle with knowing what’s normal when it comes to their hormones, cycles, and love life. Dr. Jolene Brighten is a trailblazer in women’s health and hormones. Her work simplifies the scientific and demystifies the topics women need to know.
Questions, answered
Who is Is This Normal for?
What is the 28-day plan?
How do I get the companion resources?
Do the resources expire?
Is there an audiobook or ebook?
I’m in the UK — can I get it?
Does the book replace medical advice?
Buying 10+ copies for your clinic, practice, or book club?
Email us and we’ll set you up with volume pricing and delivery to your practice, event, or distribution list. Is This Normal is a favorite gift for patients, students, and the women in your life.
It may be common. That doesn’t make it normal.
You were never meant to just live with the symptoms — or the shame of not knowing. Is This Normal gives you the judgment-free answers and the 28-day plan to take your body back — with free companion resources to help you put it into practice.
Get Your Copy