Chemistry and sex: What happens in the body when we want love
Sexual behavior of people starting with the choice of a partner, largely the result of evolution, the development of the cerebral cortex. Once it happened instinctively - and even now, despite the high intelligence and ability to logical reasoning, people often fall in love unpredictably, without controlling their feelings. What happens at the same time in the body, what hormones are responsible for sexual arousal, desire for a partner and pleasure during sex? We tried to answer these questions using data from scientific studies.
some differences typically associated with testosterone. If the behavior followed such changes in the testosterone level, women would become bolder at this stage, and in men, on the contrary, aggression would be smoothed out - but no real behavioral changes were found, so obviously everything was much more complicated. The same study notes: when hormone concentrations were measured after a year and a half, they all returned to their normal level, not associated with acute love, even among those who continued the relationship that had arisen.
What happens in the blood? It turns out that in both men and women, testosterone is primarily responsible for the interest in sex.
Traditionally it is believed that this hormone is responsible for male sexuality - but research yields contradictory results. Of course, testosterone is responsible for the development of male primary sexual characteristics and for the processes associated with puberty - but its role in sexual arousal is ambiguous. In various studies, the degree of excitability and sexual interest depended on the level of testosterone in the blood, then on the stage of puberty. In general, scientists agree that men need testosterone to maintain interest in sex, but it affects the brain primarily, but with erectile dysfunction, testosterone replacement therapy does not always help.
that it is difficult to measure the concentration of various hormones in the blood at different stages of the cycle, given that they can be influenced by many factors. It is difficult to measure sexuality as such, and observation sometimes has to be carried out for many hours at a time — because of which a large number of people cannot be included in the study. In one study, it turned out that the peak of sexual arousal in women occurred four hours after the concentration of testosterone in the blood reached a maximum - but only eight women took part in this study.
Of course, a variety of factors also influence actual behavior. For example, when studying patterns of sexual activity, it is systematically revealed that it is lowest during menstruation — and this is often explained by the fact that, due to lack of fertility, excitability decreases at this stage. In fact, this is not proven - and the excitability is sometimes even increased, and the overall lower amount of sex can be explained by very different reasons. In the material about sex during menstruation, we wrote that many women are just shy of "spoiling the moment" and soiling the bed with blood. An increased excitability in the middle of the cycle (approximately in the period of ovulation) is accompanied by an increase in not only testosterone, but also estradiol, and it is difficult to say which of them affects sexual desire more strongly.
Estrogens, female sex hormones, counteract testosterone; they inhibit the interest in sex in men - so much so that they are used for the so-called chemical castration of rapists. In women, taking estrogen from the outside can also reduce libido - and this is a common reason for not using combined oral contraceptives; whether this is due to the inhibition of testosterone production is not yet clear. Estradiol, one of the estrogens, reliably improves the lubrication of the vagina - and the dryness of the mucous membrane, which many women feel after menopause, is associated with a decrease in the production of this hormone.
In a survey of about a thousand women in stable heterosexual relationships, it turned out that a quarter of them were experiencing negative, stressful feelings about sex. Given that testosterone that is responsible for sexual arousal is produced in women by the adrenal glands, which are generally responsible for stress hormones, scientists have yet to figure out what is in this chain primarily - hormones that increase the feeling of stress, or, on the contrary, experiences that lead to the release of these hormones.
Occurs in some women during childbirth, explains the wave of instant love (however, it does not occur at all). Thirty years ago, it turned out that oxytocin levels increase in both men and women during orgasm, and later it was confirmed that in women it peaks a minute after orgasm — in five minutes it drops to the background level. Oxytocin is actively studied, because if you learn how to properly apply it, it can bring many benefits. For example, the use of this substance in a spray increased confidence in strangers in a cash game - a vivid example that gives hope, for example, to people with various social phobias.
Beta-endorphin, which is called the hormone of joy, is a natural opioid; its structure is similar to such substances as morphine and heroin. On the one hand, their effects are described as sensations similar to orgasm, and on the other, they inhibit sexual desire (probably because the orgasm is no longer necessary). Neither during sexual arousal, or during orgasm, the concentration of beta-endorphin in men or women does not change, but after orgasm, it seems, he is partly responsible for the feeling of "satiation" with sex. The same role is played by prolactin, whose concentrations increase after orgasm in both men and women.
It turns out that the hormonal processes associated with sex and love in men and women are very similar. True, scientists do not get tired to repeat that it is difficult to study sexuality and it is only partially determined by hormones: it is influenced by the general well-being and health, and mood, and social circumstances.
Images: Wikimedia Commons (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)