It wasn’t like this in my day…” Let’s Talk About It!

Hi Mobsters, it's Leah here, CEO and founder of The House of Hormones bringing you your weekly hormone intel.

If you’re in your 30s or 40s right now, there’s a phrase you’ve probably heard more than once from the older generation: “It wasn’t like this in my day.”

Usually it comes up when we talk about hormones, stress, burnout, perimenopause symptoms, HRT, supplements, or just the general feeling that women today seem more exhausted, overwhelmed, or out of balance than previous generations.

And to be fair, they’re not entirely wrong. It was different then.

But that doesn’t automatically mean it was better, or that what we’re experiencing now is imagined, exaggerated, or just in our heads. Because the truth is, a lot has changed. We now live in a world with far more environmental hormone disruptors than ever before. From plastics to personal care products to ultra-processed food systems, our daily exposure has shifted dramatically. We’re only just beginning to understand how all of this interacts with female hormones, but the emerging picture is clear: our environment today is more hormonally complex than it used to be.

At the same time, our stress load has changed shape completely. In many households now, a single income is not enough, which means most women are working. And yet, despite working full-time, women are still disproportionately carrying the mental load at home. The appointments, the school forms, the emotional tracking of everyone in the family, the planning, the remembering, the anticipating, it doesn’t disappear just because we’ve left the house for work. So when we say we are more tired, more stretched, more hormonally sensitive, or more overwhelmed than previous generations, we’re not being dramatic. We’re describing a very real shift in how modern life impacts the female nervous system and endocrine system.

And yes, we are also speaking about it more. That’s the other difference.

Previous generations often didn’t have the language, the research, or sometimes even the permission to talk about things like perimenopause, anxiety, hormonal mood shifts, or the realities of life in midlife. Many women simply got on with it. They endured symptoms that were normalised, dismissed, or never fully explored. Today, women are no longer willing to suffer in silence in the same way. We are asking questions. We are challenging old narratives. We are exploring options like HRT with far more information and agency. We are also turning to supplements, nutrition, lifestyle changes, and community support not as trends, but as tools, because we are finally acknowledging that our wellbeing matters. And that shift matters. Because this isn’t about blaming the past or dismissing older generations. It’s about recognising that context changes everything. Different environments, different pressures, different expectations, and yes, different conversations around health.

So the next time someone says, “It wasn’t like this in my day,” you might be tempted to agree politely and move on. Or you might simply think: No, it wasn’t.
But we’re talking about it now. And that might be exactly what needed to change.

With love,
Leah x THOH

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THOH,  Making sure women’s voices shape the future of women’s health.