Julie Spicer
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY·Medicine & Clinical Research
Many women develop new or worsening depression and anxiety as their hormones shift during perimenopause, the years leading into menopause. Which biological changes drive this risk is still unclear, which makes the symptoms hard to prevent or treat.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Psychology
Neuroscience
- Topics
perimenopause
surgical menopause
bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2029
What they work on
- Test whether depressive and anxiety symptoms change after surgical menopause (BSO), and whether those changes track blood levels of FSH, estradiol, progesterone, acyl-ghrelin, LEAP2, cytokines and adipokines.
- Test whether inflammatory markers rise after surgical menopause, and whether falling acyl-ghrelin and reduced vagus nerve activity, measured by vagal reflex and heart rate variability, relate to that rise.
- Explore whether hormone changes alter signaling inside monocytes, immune cells carrying FSH receptors, and whether this signaling relates to inflammatory markers after surgery.
- Apply mediation models to monthly data over six months to test whether inflammation links hormone change to mood symptoms, comparing BSO patients with surgical controls.
More about the research
One idea is that this transition triggers low-grade inflammation, driven partly by hormones better known for other jobs.
Why it matters
Mood symptoms during the menopause transition affect a very large number of women, yet their cause is unknown, so no treatment addresses the root problem. By testing whether FSH, acyl-ghrelin, immune cells and the vagus nerve connect hormone shifts to mood, this work could point to biological targets for preventing or treating perimenopausal depression and anxiety.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Qandeel Soomro
New York University, NY·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Deeply profile autonomic nervous system dysfunction across stages of chronic kidney disease using a comprehensive battery of autonomic tests, both cross-sectionally and over time, to test whether dysfunction shifts from parasympathetic to sympathetic as CKD advances.
Pauline Maki
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Neuroscience
Map longitudinal changes in brain structure, function, connectivity and memory across menopause stages in 220 women aged 40–59, staging menopause by bleeding criteria and anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), and relating changes to estradiol.
Brandilyn Peters
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY·Public Health & Epidemiology
Determine how 12 weeks of transdermal estradiol, with or without progesterone, changes the gut microbiome of women with HIV in the randomized HoT trial, using shotgun metagenomic sequencing of stool samples.
The school
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: 45 labs on PI Pages, $1.0B a year on research, 62 research doctorates a year.
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