Oxytocin & Menopause

This is menopause/oxytocin research from my alma mater, the University of Michigan, collaborating with some other prestigious places.

They published a peer review article on aging women and hormones.

But their focus was on the under appreciated hormone: oxytocin.

That pic above was at a conference I co-taught with Dr. Pam Smith for pharmacists in Utah. (Sponsored by the amazing Dean Jolly (PharmD) that always wears a bow tie).

This neuroscientist was showing me her oxytocin torso tattoo! (Wondering if I should get something similar?)

These scientists wrote that menopausal women end up having less and less oxytocin and more and more issues. From mood dysregulation such as anxiety and depression if not aggression, to problems sleeping, and sensations of not feeling as good as our younger versions.

Menopause is not just about less estrogen.

Some of menopausal symptoms are caused by oxytocin insufficiency.

Nearly 1M US women experience menopause annually.

But despite the significant impact menopause has on female physical and mental health, menopause has been insufficiently studied, say these University of Michigan investigators.

I think menopause has been well studied in-depth, but this massive body of research has not been appreciated, taught or passed forward.

Thus our new course Everything Hormones.

In this course I teach oxytocin replacement for many issues, from treating Barrett’s (a formula I developed to help avoid life-long PPI’s) to it’s use in the vagina as an anti-aging tool. Keep in mind, this all has to be individualized and done by a doc trained in this. We are just starting to make a small difference with passing this forward).

I digress.

Oxytocin is a neuro-hormone that wears many hats.

Oxytocin regulates emotionality, social behaviors, and fundamental physiological systems.

Oxytocin signals our calming nervous system.

Oxytocin, when signaling optimally, allows us to feel “right” with our world.

You have heard me say over and over, wherever there are receptors, hormones signal. (However, now we are learning that all sex steroid hormones also have non-genomic versions of themselves, that deliver signals inside cell membranes where there are no receptors, but rather trigger a release of enzymes that send signals).

Localization of oxytocin receptors in the brain, reproductive tissues, bone, and heart support oxytocin’s role in mental health - and potentially sleep - along with reproductive and cardiovascular functions.

Oxytocin receptors (and vasopressin, one of it’s many best bud hormones) line the entire digestive tract, especially the pancreas.

Thus, oxytocin has a lot to do with our relationship with food, hunger and energy/blood sugar.

Some of my diabetics get much better glucose control when we start adding oxytocin nasal spray. Dose is individualized.

Oxytocin is a complex hormone. Many “things” such as specific nutrients and other hormones, have to be optimal, for oxytocin “to work” as a treatment.

Just one example, if magnesium is not sufficiently present inside cells, with a RBC magnesium between 5.8 and 6.8 mg/dL, oxytocin, even if replaced, may not signal.

So, just inquiring about dosage does not help.

This is why some docs have tried oxytocin replacement in practice, yet not seen results.

Bottom line: as women transition into menopause, oxytocin levels decrease while their susceptibility to mood disorders, poor sleep, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular diseases increases.

It’s not just estrogen that protects all these issues. Take bones. Oxytocin, in close tissue proximity to estrogen, “allows” estrogen to be bone protective!

Oxytocin is a hormone kissing cousin and we will be hearing more and more about it. If more and more docs get trained and our marvelous compounders can keep fulfilling these scripts!

What was this U of M article called? Oxytocin and women's health in midlife

Authors

• ¹G Dunietz, Neurology, University of Michigan Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, United States.

• ²L Tittle, Psychology, University of Michigan College of Literature Science and the Arts, Ann Arbor, United States.

• ³S Mumford, Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics , University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, United States.

• ⁴L O'Brien , Neurology, University of Michigan Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, United States.

• ⁵A Baylin, Nutritional Sciences , University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, United States.

• ⁶E Schisterman , Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics , University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, United States.

• ⁷R Chervin , Neurology, University of Michigan Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, United States.

• ⁸L Young , Psychiatry, Emory University, Atlanta, United States.

Sometimes the hormones you might need “replaced” are not only estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, but some oxytocin “up your nose” (oxytocin is mostly, not always, prescribed as a nasal spray).

The FDA allows 15 IU of oxytocin to be sold OTC.

I had formed my own oxytocin company with CareFirst Pharmacy in Broken Arrow, OK, a few years ago. Within months the FDA passed new regulation where you could not send scripts, as a compounder, from one state to another, without a license in that state.

OH my. Our FDA lives in the “state of denial”. Much of the time. Always gotta be on your toes to follow those dollars.

Stay tuned for my new oxytocin book. Should I do a contest for a best title and if I use yours, you get a year subscription for free?

So far I have been contemplating: love heals, orgasms heal, love medicine, healing up your nose… any other ideas?

Knowledge is power.

Hormones rule as they signal genes.

Move over estrogen and Rodney Dangerfield, oxytocin is getting more respect.

Dr. B.

Reference:

Oxytocin and women's health in midlife. J Endocrinol. 2024 Apr 1:JOE-23-0396