Andrew Huberman· PhD
Now, the directionality of this effect isn't entirely clear, it could be that reductions in estrogen cause apnea, and actually, there's some reason to believe that might be the case, I found at least one paper showing that there are estrogen receptors on some of the neurons that actually innervate the lungs and allow for the perception of how full or empty the lungs are, in other words, reductions in estrogen may adjust breathing by changing our sensitivity to our own lungs, now, that was true for males and females, remember, estrogen is both males and females, but as well, I found papers in which testosterone reductions were associated with apnea, and testosterone receptors are also found on a lot of cells in the so-called viscera, including the lungs, so again, the directionality of the effect isn't clear, but what's really interesting is that there are very clear ways in which patterns of breathing, especially patterns of breathing in sleep, can modulate hormones in ways that are immediately actionable and can serve to optimize both estrogen and testosterone regardless of whether or not you have ovaries or testes.