|
Murphy Kismet
Stranger
Registered: 09/13/20
Posts: 2
Last seen: 3 years, 6 months
|
Female hormones and cycles
#26933231 - 09/13/20 11:13 AM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
First off, I hope this thread is in the right place. I searched but couldn't find any answers.
Is there any information out there on women's hormonal physiology and response to hallucinogens...? You see, I've noticed in my own little circle that males tend to get affected with more ease (with cannabis, and other stuff), whereas females tend to need more just to feel the same as the males. Case in point: hubby can eat 1 of friend's edibles and get right toasted, but 24yo daughter eats FOUR and walks around like it's nothing. Same with myself: I'll take ONE edible (I make them now) at work for anxiety purposes and I'll feel fine, but hubby takes one edible and gets right gubbered within an hour. So unfair. I'm feeling a little left out here. :/
Three years ago hubby and I did a san pedro ceremony and NOTHING happened to me. Not even the puking. And I had taken TWO doses! I was so bummed out.
There's an ayahuasca ceremony coming up (no set date yet), and I'm considering bowing out due to my current perspective of 'waste of money' if nothing can happen, and 'waste of my time'.
In terms of female hormones, would doing a ceremony in relation to the moon cycle help a woman (myself) get a little something of a spiritual/awakening sort of experience? When I say "moon cycle" I mean if a woman's menstrual cycle is synced to the lunar cycle, and/or just our levels of hormones coursing through our bodies are certain times may contribute to the level of psychedelic experience?
|
Urinal Grease
Weird Brown Stain
Registered: 09/07/20
Posts: 67
Last seen: 3 years, 2 months
|
|
While I'm not a female I share an odd tolerance to substances with you.
Friends roll on 2-5g hongos. Takes me 7-10 to get anything other than mild body.
|
MindMeower
lawnmower for the brain
Registered: 05/10/19
Posts: 341
|
|
I don't know any of the specifics about the hormonal aspects so that question will need to be answered by someone else. (There are reports that the negative aspects of the menstrual cycle will get greatly diminished with stuff like mushies)
My GF is super sensitive instead, only fraction of what I need to get a good time gives her results that I can only envy... I have naturally high tolerance while she seems to have naturally very low tolerance instead.
It could be that you simply have naturally high tolerance. There are also medications which massively increase tolerance to various substances, for example SSRIs (antidepressants) can completely void effects of any psychedelic.
-------------------- M(e)owing minds
|
Rhizomorph
Psychedelic Researcher
Registered: 04/24/20
Posts: 786
|
|
I would keep in mind that small sample sizes tend to produce high variability. It could be that men have naturally lower tolerance to drugs but it is more likely that you and this other girl as individuals have naturally higher tolerance to drugs. Larger sample sizes are more representative of the overall population and thus avoid the potential illusion of sex differences that are simply due to inter-individual differences.
Most of the research I have seen shows that females generally have a lower tolerance to drugs in general. However this is often due to body weight which plays a large role in metabolism. Still, new research is always coming out, especially with regards to psychedelic research which has been pushed underground up until the last decade or so.
Personality factors play a large role in how the experience is felt as well. For example, somebody with anxiety, i.e. somebody who likely has a hyperactive nervous system to begin with, may feel the subjective effects of psychedelics more intensely as the activation of the nervous system & brain from anxiety + the activation caused by psychedelics, may have a compound effect. This is just an example, but there are different interactions with different personality traits & mental disorders alike that may influence the intensity of the effects.
EDIT: Did a search on PsycINFO (psychology database) with keywords being things like "male", "female", "psychedelic*", "hellucinogen*", "sex", "gender", etc. paired with "tolerance". This turned up with very little results unfortunately
The majority of the studies on tolerance were done exclusively on males (rats or humans) which is bullshit if you ask me...
Here are some quotes I did turn up however:
"The results of the locomotor activity study indicate that females may be more sensitive to the effects of THC than males"
"Indeed, sex differences do exist with respect to ibogaine pharmacokinetics [females have higher brain levels than males 19 h postibogaine" - i.e. after taking ibogaine female rats had higher levels of ibogaine in the brain, on average.
That was all I could find in a 15 min search but it suggests that psychedelics may follow the literature on drug tolerance in general with regards to gender. More research really needs to be done to confirm anything though, especially given that THC & ibogaine act very differently compared to psilocybin per say.
Edited by Rhizomorph (09/13/20 06:56 PM)
|
Murphy Kismet
Stranger
Registered: 09/13/20
Posts: 2
Last seen: 3 years, 6 months
|
Re: Female hormones and cycles [Re: Rhizomorph]
#26934589 - 09/14/20 06:15 AM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
Thank you everyone who answered. Still confused lol.
I have to wonder if their positions on dosages for women are evidence-based on HUMANS as opposed to rats/mice, or assumptions based on our "more sensitive" dispositions. *eye roll* I gotta basically overdose on tylenol (2000+ mg)for a headache to feel ANY relief. Same with ibuprofen. MY mother, on the other hand, would take a regular 325mg tylenol for a migraine and say "it takes the edge off" while her eye (left or right, not both) is crying copiously. So, maybe she needed more too, but was afraid because the studies (done on mice/rats or all males) says that one is good enough.
Once again, thank you folks for letting me know that not all females are as hard to get high as those I know. I still don't feel hopeful lmao.
So now I'm looking at topicals, or extended fasting to achieve some level of higher awareness. Maybe combined.
|
zaros
Stranger
Registered: 01/14/18
Posts: 57
Last seen: 1 year, 1 month
|
|
i think that psychologically men have different worries than women, i suppose some women are more willing to go with it while men are looking to deal with it. thoughts?'
nvm im just stupid.
Edited by zaros (09/14/20 03:58 PM)
|
Rhizomorph
Psychedelic Researcher
Registered: 04/24/20
Posts: 786
|
|
Yeah most of the studies were done on rats unfortunately...
Until psychedelics are regulated, most of the studies on them will come from rats, or surveys of past use, which aren't as reliable as actually administering psychedelics to humans in a lab. The FDA, ethics boards, etc. will make it impossible to do studies with administration to a human without a shit load of resources.
Until further research comes out most research teams are looking to maximize their resources by using them to cover broad themes such as benefits alongside therapy, and things that have a capitalistic benefit (medicalization) rather than the nitty gritty stuff such as how tolerance may differ between men & women compared to other drugs.
This is why regulation is so important if you ask me. Everything is covered in red tape until the government recognizes that the war on drugs is inherently unscientific.
|
redgreenvines
irregular verb
Registered: 04/08/04
Posts: 38,066
|
Re: Female hormones and cycles [Re: Rhizomorph]
#26936834 - 09/15/20 11:15 AM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
|
|
the body is the life trip.
while hormone can add or remove energy, inflammation, sex drive, and help transition between egg production and child production cycles, I do not think it is part of the psychedelic process.
sometimes it just does not kick, probably gut absorption issue.
-------------------- _ 🧠_
|
|