Other
Oxytocin
Oxytocin is a nine-amino-acid posterior pituitary hormone and, unlike most compounds in this dataset, an approved medicine: Pitocin and Syntocinon are licensed for obstetric use, given by titrated intravenous infusion…
Also known as Pitocin · Syntocinon · Oxytocin acetate · OT
At a glance
Dose summary
No reliable human half-life has been published for Oxytocin, so none is listed rather than guessed at.
Reconstitution
What to draw, at the usual vial
A 10 mg vial reconstituted with 5 mL of bacteriostatic water gives 2.00 mg/mL. A typical 40 mcg dose is 0.020 mL — pull the plunger to 2 units on a U-100 syringe.
Same dose, other vial sizes
| Vial | Water | Concentration | Draw | Units | Doses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 mg | 5 mL | 2.00 mg/mL | 0.020 mL | 2 units | 250 |
The highlighted row is the one quoted above: the smallest listed vial that holds at least four typical doses. Change any of it — a different vial, more or less water, a different dose — on the reconstitution calculator, which draws the syringe to true U-100 graduations.
Mechanism & evidence
What it is, and what is known
Oxytocin is a nine-amino-acid posterior pituitary hormone and, unlike most compounds in this dataset, an approved medicine: Pitocin and Syntocinon are licensed for obstetric use, given by titrated intravenous infusion to induce or augment labour and by IV or IM injection to control postpartum bleeding. PREGNANCY IS A HARD CONTRAINDICATION HERE, AND NOT AS A PRECAUTION. Oxytocin's approved pharmacological action is to make the uterus contract.
Taken off-label by someone who is or might be pregnant, it risks uterine hyperstimulation, fetal distress, miscarriage or preterm labour. Legitimate obstetric use happens in a hospital with continuous fetal and contraction monitoring and the ability to stop the infusion within minutes; none of that exists around a self-administered wellness dose. Do not use this if pregnancy is possible. THE OBSTETRIC LABEL DOSING IS NOT TRANSFERABLE TO THE RANGE ON THIS PAGE, and the two must never be mixed.
The label is expressed in USP units and delivered as a continuous IV infusion titrated in milliunits per minute against uterine response, or as a bolus IM dose after delivery. That is a different route, a different unit, a different endpoint and a different setting. No obstetric figure was used to build the range below, and a label dose read in units must not be entered here as micrograms - the international standard is roughly 1.68 mcg of peptide per IU, so units and micrograms are not interchangeable numbers.
This entry also omits the IV and IM routes on purpose: they are the approved obstetric routes and are not what this tool models. The range here comes only from the intranasal social-cognition literature, where acute single doses of roughly 16-40 IU have been used and 24 IU is the conventional research dose; converted at about 1.68 mcg per IU that is roughly 27-67 mcg, rounded to 25-70 mcg. That literature is acute, single-dose, and its replication record is contested; chronic self-administration has not been studied at all.
There is no controlled human data for subcutaneous wellness dosing, so the subq route is listed because it is what grey-market users actually do, not because a dose has been established for it. Practical notes: a 10 mg vial is enormously more than any documented dose. Even reconstituted in 5 mL, a 40 mcg dose is about 2 units on a U-100 syringe, which is at the edge of what can be drawn accurately - the 10 mg presentation is really sized for making up a nasal spray rather than for single subcutaneous draws.
Plasma half-life is a few minutes, so no hourly figure is listed. The scheduler stores this as daily only because that is the closest available slot; the effect is acute and short-lived and typical off-label use is per occasion, not a fixed daily course.
The caveat
Approved for obstetric intravenous use only, and none of that label was used to build the range here. The numbers come from acute intranasal research doses with a contested replication record. There is no controlled data at all for subcutaneous wellness dosing.Tolerability
Reported side effects
- Nasal stinging, burning or post-nasal drip when sprayed
- Headache, usually within the first hour
- Flushing and a warm or slightly light-headed feeling
- Nausea
- Drowsiness or a flattened, sedated mood; some users report blunted rather than heightened emotion
- Uterine cramping in women, which is the drug doing exactly what it is designed to do
- Water retention and, at high or repeated doses, hyponatraemia - oxytocin has genuine antidiuretic activity, and water intoxication is a documented hazard of high-dose obstetric infusion given with large fluid volumes
- Blunting of the response with frequent repeated dosing
Hard stops
Do not use this if
- Pregnancy, possible pregnancy, or breastfeeding
- Under 18
These are flags, not a screening. They do not replace a conversation with a clinician who knows your history.
Handling
Storage
Keep it cold, keep it dark, and label the vial with the date you mixed it. Discard anything cloudy or past the window above.
Combinations
Commonly stacked with
Stacking multiplies the side-effect surface and makes it impossible to tell which compound did what. Add one thing at a time.
References
Sources
Educational information only, not medical advice. Talk to a licensed clinician before starting, changing, or stopping anything.