Understand Female Desire, Attraction, and Partner Choice | Sarah Hill EP 227
The Mikhaila Peterson Podcast
Mikhaila Peterson
4.7 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2026
⏱️ 54 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
In this episode, I sat down with Dr. Sarah Hill, evolutionary psychologist, researcher, and author of The Period Brain. Dr. Hill is an expert in how hormones shape female psychology, attraction, relationships, health, and behavior. Dr. Hill broke down the science behind hormonal birth control and mate selection and we discussed what happens when women meet partners on birth control and later come off it, and why those shifts can feel confusing, destabilizing, or even identity-altering.We also explored The Period Brain and how attraction changes across the menstrual cycle and we talked about stress, safety, relationships, and identity—why feeling safe is biologically essential for women and how chronic stress can suppress ovulation even when periods appear “normal.”This is an episode for every woman and every man interested in actually understanding women. Sarah Hill’s book: https://a.co/d/04yrz7Wu—Sarah’s Links—Instagram: instagram.com/sarahehillphd/Website: SarahEHill.comFor a high quality education and community consider enrolling in Peterson Academy: https://petersonacademy.com/—Follow Me—All Platforms: https://linktr.ee/mikhailapeterson Instagram: https://instagram.com/mikhailapeterson TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@mikhailapeterson Website: https://mikhailapeterson.com Lion Diet: https://liondiet.com Biotoxin: https://biotoxin.com Facebook: https://facebook.com/mikhailapete​rsonpodcast X: https://twitter.com/MikhailaFullerTelegram: https://t.me/mikhailapeterson​​—Chapters—00:55 Introducing Sarah Hill & The Period Brain 03:10 Choosing a Partner on the Pill07:30 Studies on Partner Selection and Relationship Satisfaction11:05 Caveat for how The Pill Affects Partner Selection13:30 Does Birth Control Affect Society at Scale?17:30 What The Period Brain Is Really About19:00 Why Health Insights For Women's Health Have Been Wrong 20:40 What Happens During The Cycle24:45 Energy, Appetite, and Exercise Across the Cycle28:22 Coming Off Birth Control: Mood and Identity Shifts31:00 Stress, Safety, and Hormonal Health32:47 Stress and Ovulation Correlation 37:30 Relationships, Safety, and the Female Brain40:20 Sexual Desire Isn’t Broken—It’s Cyclical43:00 Sensory and Emotional Changes Off the Pill46:00 Rebuilding Identity After Hormonal Suppression52:28 Final Thoughts & Where to Find Sarah Hill#pregnancy #ovulation #theperiodbrain
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When you look at the differences between the sort of ideal male face, when it's sort of created |
| 0:05.3 | digitally using a computer program that's used to test these things, what they find is that when |
| 0:10.0 | women are using hormonal birth control, they create a more feminized male face created by naturally |
| 0:15.1 | cycling women. |
| 0:15.9 | I think women have been led to believe that the only way forward to promote an egalitarian society is to deny our biological differences for men. |
| 0:24.6 | 100%. |
| 0:25.6 | And so most of the insights that we have about what it looks like to have a heart attack or what good nutrition looks like or what sleep requirements look like. |
| 0:32.6 | A lot of that's based on research that was conducted in men. |
| 0:34.6 | I'm pregnant. |
| 0:35.6 | Beginning to understand what your brain and your body are actually trying to do as you move |
| 0:41.5 | between different cycle phases. |
| 0:43.2 | What are we 50% of the population as female? |
| 0:45.9 | Even if you're a man who's like trying desperately to avoid women, you're probably going |
| 0:49.8 | to have to interact with us at some point in your life. |
| 0:56.0 | Sarah Hill, welcome back to my podcast. |
| 0:58.0 | So glad to be here. Thank you for having me. |
| 1:00.0 | This is exciting. So you have a new book, The Period Brain, which we are going to be talking about. |
| 1:06.0 | But before we get started, can you give people a brief introduction to who you are and what you do? |
| 1:12.6 | Sure. So I'm Dr. Sarah Hill. I'm an evolutionary psychologist and I'm a researcher and professor. |
| 1:19.8 | And I've spent most of my career studying women's brains and women's psychology and more recently |
| 1:25.4 | sort of specializing within that area looking at women's hormones |
| 1:29.7 | and the way that women's hormones and hormonal changes influence the way that women think, |
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