Hormonal dysregulation, maturity, and marital dissolution in midlife: An integrative model of relational vulnerability
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60114/rbtf.v14i1.160Keywords:
Marital relations, Menopause, Testosterone, Integrative healthAbstract
This study is an integrative narrative literature review, with searches in PubMed, SciELO, and Scopus databases from 2015 to 2025, articulating findings from neuroscience, endocrinology, and attachment psychology to propose the Relational Vulnerability Window – a heuristic model explaining the concentration of marital dissolutions between ages 40 and 50 through five axes: neurobiological basis of the emotional maturity gap; perimenopause impact on serotonergic regulation; male hormonal transition and the couplepause paradigm; neurobiology of long-term bonding; and secular testosterone decline as a precipitating factor.
Implications for interdisciplinary practice are discussed, including referral for functional hormonal assessment as a therapeutic
component. Artificial intelligence (Claude by Antrhopic) was strictly used for bibliographic search support and structural language
editing, fully validated by the author.
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