Research
Hormonal
Females exhibit higher GLP-1 receptor (GLP1R) expression in specific brain regions (PBN, AP/NTS) involved in processing aversive stimuli, which may explain their heightened sensitivity to GLP-1 agonist-induced nausea.
This finding suggests that women's brains may have more 'targets' for GLP-1 drugs in areas that control nausea, which is why side effects are more common. This is a biological fact, not a personal failing.
StrongSupportsHIGH confidence
Our finding of increased expression of GLP1R mRNA in several cell clusters in the female brain... offers a feasible and testable hypothesis to explain their heightened sensitivity to the feeding and aversive properties of GLP1R agonists compared to males.
Why this rating
High-quality single-cell transcriptomic data from a large cohort of mice.
Source
Sex differences in GLP-1 signaling across species
Thomas Roseberry et al. · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2025
DOI 10.1101/2025.03.17.643822
preprint · n=2337Cited 5×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Women experience a significantly lower efficacy-to-tolerability ratio than men when treated with GLP-1 receptor agonists, characterized by disproportionately higher rates of persistent nausea and vomiting relative to weight loss.Good
- Higher circulating estrogen levels in women are predictive of increased rates of nausea and vomiting when taking GLP-1 receptor agonists, and estrous cycle phase modulates drug sensitivity in female mice.Good
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