When I was a young hooligan, every bad-ass I ever got into major trouble with was a woman. From smoking and ditching class, to taking acid and shoplifting, me and the girls were always up to no good. So when I started doing cocaine at age 17, women were very much a part of that story too. I could always count on one or more of my good-time gal pals to sneak off to a car or bathroom at a gay club to do lines with me. Even at the end of my cocaine use, female coworkers and neighbors were around to snort one last time by my side. Now, a new study suggests there might be a deeper reason behind the never-ending stream of cocaine-loving women in my life.
Of Mice and Coke Addicts
Noticing that women seemed to get addicted to cocaine faster than men, Dr. Erin Calipari, a fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine, set out to find out why. Using mice (which show the same sex differences in drug use as humans), the researchers saw quickly how different genders reacted to cocaine. “Cocaine acts the exact same way in humans and mice. It’s just [that]humans are more complicated,” Calipari noted. Researchers observed that the females swiftly set out to satisfy the pleasure/reward system and knew exactly where in their cages to go for more cocaine, and that this instinct was enhanced based on hormonal levels. “The mice quickly learned that a particular environment is linked to drugs, and we demonstrated that when these mice, especially females at the height of their estrous cycle, were put into that environment, it stimulated a dopamine reward signal even without cocaine use,” Dr. Calipari says. “It is the same kind of strong, learned response that we know happens in humans.”
Blame It on That Time of the Month?
The study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, also contains a pretty big bombshell: women get a greater high depending on where they are in their menstrual cycles. Researchers found that when estrogen levels were at their highest, the brain’s dopamine reward pathway was magnified, meaning the effects of cocaine for menstruating women are off the charts. “At the height of the menstrual cycle, pleasure feelings are at their peak,” Calipari said. She also notes that women experience huge bumps in estrogen typically 10 days out of the month—hence why more women are likely to become addicted to cocaine than men.
The research is also quick to point out that although there are statistically still more men than women addicted to cocaine, women are at a greater risk of becoming addicts after one use. This idea of estrogen affecting addiction is one that has been tossed around the scientific community for years. Most recently, a study out of the University of Minnesota found that when rats were given estrogen, they were more likely to become addicted to administered drugs.
Recovery for Her
While addiction doesn’t really care about your gender, research like this is incredibly helpful when we talk about the unique ways that men and women recover. Calipari and her team think research like this will help steer specialized treatment programs going forward. This makes sense to me as a gay man who gets more out of LGBT meetings than ones filled with straight dudes. My sobriety, like my drug use would not be what it is without the sober women in my life. My sister, my second sponsor and countless female friends have cheered me on and made me laugh the entire time I’ve been sober. Yet I realize—and this study confirms—that they need totally different things in recovery than I do. Brenda Iliff, the author of A Woman’s Guide to Recovery, believes that these differences are an advantage to women who decide to get sober. “Recovery often happens fast for women. Recovery is a natural for women. That’s because women are wired for relationships, and recovery from addiction starts with connection,” she writes. “Much of the healing process of recovery revolves around connecting with others who share the struggle”.
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