Sexual Health, Pleasure, and Oxytocin: Clinical Priorities for Vitality | E45 - Functional Medicine for Real-World Impact: The School of Applied Functional Medicine (SAFM) | Lyssna här

Most hormone conversations center on estradiol, progesterone, insulin, and cortisol. This one makes room for a hormone many practitioners may be overlooking.

On Functional Medicine for Real World Impact, host Tracy Harrison sits down with Dr. Anna Cabeca, triple-board-certified physician, OB-GYN, and bestselling author of The Hormone Fix, to talk about why oxytocin belongs in the clinical conversation around perimenopause, menopause, sexual health, and vitality.

Dr. Cabeca calls oxytocin the queen mother of hormones. When it is high, patients are more connected, more responsive, and more likely to shift into an anabolic state. When chronic stress keeps cortisol elevated, oxytocin can become suppressed, and that is when patients may start saying they love their partner but feel nothing, or that they care about their work but cannot access that feeling anymore. That presentation is not just a mindset problem. It is physiology, and it is worth addressing.

The conversation covers what it looks like to make sexual health a clinical priority without making patients uncomfortable, why pelvic exams and vaginal health screenings are non-negotiable as women age, and how common medications like antihistamines and antidepressants can quietly disrupt desire and orgasm in ways practitioners often overlook.

Dr. Cabeca also shares the language she uses to open these conversations naturally, practical oxytocin-supporting tools across lifestyle and nutrition, and when to consider prescription support for patients who have been in a state of disconnect for so long they no longer remember what vitality feels like.

For practitioners working with women in perimenopause, menopause, and beyond, this conversation offers a more complete way to think about hormones, intimacy, pleasure, and clinical care.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Why Oxytocin Is the Most Powerful Hormone in the Body

03:35 Dr. Anna Cabeca's Personal Journey and the Discovery of Oxytocin

19:57 Practical Ways to Boost Oxytocin in Daily Life

29:57 Why Sexual Health Belongs in Every Clinical Conversation

39:23 The Three D's That Disrupt Intimacy and How to Address Them

44:34 Vaginal and Pelvic Health as a Longevity Essential

49:00 Medications That Quietly Undermine Desire and Orgasm

52:47 Self-Pleasuring as a Clinical Tool for Women Without Partners

56:30 How to Talk About Sexual Health With Reluctant Patients

59:00 Opening the Conversation With Patients Without Crossing a Line

Connect with Dr. Anna Cabeca: