Shopper's Guide•Women's Health
6 things I blamed on everything except my hormones
Summary: Breakouts I hadn't had since high school. Hairs where I'd never had them. Tired no matter how much coffee I drank, and never in the mood. For a year I treated every one of them as its own problem. Here are the six things I wish someone had told me sooner.
Here's all 6 👇
1. Someone finally said my whole list out loud
I'd never heard anyone put them in the same sentence. A woman I follow ran through every one of them — the skin, the stray hairs, the tiredness, never being in the mood — and then said they were probably the same thing. I watched it three times before I sent it to my best friend.
2. I'd treated each one as its own problem
A new face wash for the breakouts. Tweezers for the chin hairs. A third coffee for the 3pm wall. A shrug for everything else. Every explanation worked on its own, which is exactly why I never put them side by side.
3. My nurse friend told me to stop treating them separately
The last thing on my list was the one I'd never said out loud: ten years married, and I'd started needing to talk myself into it. My closest friend is a nurse. She didn't diagnose anything. She said these things often travel together, that hormones sit underneath a lot of them, and that I should look at hormonal support before reaching for anything stronger.
4. The first ingredient she named was shatavari
Asparagus racemosus — a root used in Ayurvedic practice for women for centuries. SRI-81, a standardized shatavari extract, was studied at 300mg in an eight-week placebo-controlled trial and showed a 34.2% improvement from baseline in overall sexual function and satisfaction scores. Eight weeks is the honest timeline. Nothing here happens in a fortnight.
Ademola et al., 2026. Clinical research relates to the SRI-81 shatavari extract at 300mg, not to Nello or to this product.
5. I wasn't going to take a handful of pills
She named two more: myo-inositol, studied for its role in insulin sensitivity and hormonal and cycle health, and rhodiola rosea, an adaptogen traditionally used for stress. Three bottles was never going to happen. Superbalance puts all three in one packet I stir into water, and it tastes like a strawberry refresher — zero sugar, about 20 calories.
Myo-inositol: Genazzani et al., 2008 (2g daily, 12 weeks). Research relates to the ingredient, not to Nello or to this product.
6. Check the amounts, not just the names
Plenty of hormone blends list these ingredients. Fewer print how much. Superbalance prints every dose: myo-inositol 2,000mg, SRI-81 shatavari 300mg — the same dose as the research — and rhodiola rosea 200mg, plus magnesium malate, vitamin C and B6. It's third-party tested, too. Give it the eight weeks the research used before you judge it.
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