Oxytocin and Love Makin'

Researching this topic wasn’t easy, at least not as easy as the last two. I actually had to use the library and browse through a lot of articles to find what I wanted, but I think I got it. I am also sure that there is plenty information that I missed. Researching this topic gave me even more respect for sex and what it does to humans. It can get technical, but you are all smart people, so bear with me.

Oxytocin (OT) is a hormone that doctors have known about for a long time (by that I mean about 30 years). It is produced by the release of They have used it in the lovely and painful to watch act of childbirth. It helps to stimulate contractions so that the mother go through labor more quickly. It also helps in lactation when breast feeding (they think that OT is responsible for breast feeding women’s lower rate of breast cancer). It is also one of many hormones that is released when, during coitus, both male and female reach that heavenly moment of orgasm.

Now there is the interesting part. We only found out about that in the 1990’s. Why is OT released when you orgasm? Well, OT is what actually gives you the orgasm. Similar to the contractions of birth, it contracts muscles that move and project your boy toy’s metropolis of tadpoles. It also sets of the glands that lubricate the vagina. So there is some of the physical aspect of OT, how about emotional?

Well, lets just call OT the “cuddle hormone.” It’s that little thing that when you have orgasmed, makes many girls wanna spoon their boy. The reason the boy doesn’t want to cuddle is because he has a little OT release, but he also has a few others going on (vasopressin makes him want to protect his new mate since she is most likely carrying his genes, he needs to go hunting for food for her and his new child).

Women and men have different reactions to sex right away. Part of the reason is because when we orgasm men have only (roughly) half the OT release that women have. Beyond that, women’s bodies retain the OT longer than men. To go one step farther, women have twice the baseline rate of OT than men have. I think it would be interesting to see if this has anything to do with women across cultures wanting and having tighter social networks than men.

Now, let’s just mention some of the side-effects of OT. Women who received more hugs from their significant others tended to have high levels of OT. This same levels of OT were seen in men who have sex with their significant others at least two times a week (but more was not better for this aspect – probably better for burning calories, though). These people saw lower blood pressure, lower cancer rates, men had a 50% lower chance of a fatal heart attack, both had greater life spans, lower levels of stress, and lower levels of depression.

You all wouldn’t believe the amount of good information I found on this. If you would like all my sources I can post them or send them to any individual that would like to read more about it. Many of it also talks about the different kinds of sexual relationships humans have. I think I will use that for next week.