Love Biochemicals: The Elusive G-spot

The elusive G-spot.  Many women swear they have one, but a new review of 60 years of sex research shows science (often by male doctors and researchers) still can’t definitively find the G-spot.

Based on a review of 96 published studies, an Israeli and American research team came to one conclusion.

“Without a doubt, a discreet anatomic entity called the G-spot does not exist,” said Dr. Amichai Kilchevsky.

Kilchevsky doesn’t think women who claim to have a G-spot are crazy either. “What they’re likely experiencing is a continuation of the clitoris,” he said. G-spot skeptics often point out that the tissue of the clitoris extends into the body, behind it where the G-spot would be located.

Kilchevsky, is a urology resident at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut, and lead author of the review, published Jan. 12 in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Researchers have used surveys, imaging scans and biopsies of women, all trying to locate and define the presumably orgasmic area on the vaginal wall known as the G-spot.

Kilchevsky conceded the work is not “1,000 percent conclusive,” allowing that other scientists could one day find something his team missed. But they would need new technology to do it, he said.

g-plus-logo

Editorial:  If researchers studied a flaccid penis in its usual non-erect state, they would conclude that a discreet anatomic entity called a erect penis does not exist. However under the right conditions, penile erection occurs when two tubular structures that run the length of the penis, the corpora cavernosa, become engorged with venous blood.  Since the G-spot does not engorge with blood but transudate fluid and is felt and not seen, most male researchers would miss this.  They probably aren’t great lovers either because if they were, they would be able to arouse a woman and wake up her G-spot.  For the man and woman this is often a learned experience.

A half-century quest

The G-spot was named in honor of the late Dr. Ernst Gräfenberg, who in 1950 described a particularly sensitive 1- to 2-centimeter wide area on the vaginal wall. Gräfenberg’s description put Western medicine on a quest to define and learn more about the spot, purported to be a few centimeters in from the vaginal opening, on the vaginal wall toward the front of a woman’s body.

But Gräfenberg wasn’t the first to write about such an erogenous zone. The Kamasastra and Jayamangala scripts dating back to 11th century India describe a similar sensitive area, according to the new study.

Modern surveys of women on the subject only confounded the search. From a review of 29 surveys and observational studies, Kilchevsky concluded that a majority of women believe a G-spot actually exists, although some of those women also say they can’t locate it.

Other researchers have looked for physical evidence. Biopsies of tissue taken from the vaginal wall often find more nerve endings in the area of the purported G-spot than in other regions of the vaginal wall. But Kilchevsky and his colleagues also found biopsy studies with inconclusive results, and the authors point out that sensitivity in the human body isn’t determined by the number of nerve endings alone.

One 2008 study used ultrasound imaging to explore the vaginal wall of women, and found evidence of thicker tissue in the area of the G-spot among women who reported having vaginal orgasms. Women who said they had never had vaginal orgasms had thinner tissue in that area. However, other imaging studies included in Kilchevsky’s review couldn’t find a conclusive G-spot.

Ultimately, Kilchevsky said he hopes his conclusions support women who worry they can’t find the G-spot at home. (NOTE: the g spot is not necessary for orgasm)

“Women who can’t achieve orgasm through vaginal penetration don’t have anything wrong with them,” he said.

One study may yield clues

One study in the review kept “the possibility of a discrete G-spot viable,” according to Kilchevsky.

A Rutgers University research team recently asked several women to stimulate themselves in a functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) machine. Brain scans showed stimulating the clitoris, vagina and cervix lit up distinct areas of the women’s sensory cortex. This means the brain registered distinct feelings between stimulating the clitoris, the cervix and the vaginal wall – where the G-spot is famed to be.

Barry Komisaruk, the lead author of the fMRI study and professor of psychology at Rutgers University, advocates calling it the G-area, or G-region, instead.

“I think that the bulk of the evidence shows that the G-spot is not a particular thing. It’s not like saying, ‘What is the thyroid gland?’” Komisaruk said. “The G-spot is more of a thing like New York City is a thing. It’s a region, it’s a convergence of many different structures.”

Komisaruk said that pressing on the area proclaimed to be the G-spot also presses the urethra and a structure called Skene’s gland, which is analogous to the male prostate.

“Each of those areas have different nerve sites,” said Komisaruk. “I think there’s good enough data that a lot of women feel that that is a particularly sensitive  region.”

Debby Herbenick, a research scientist at Indiana University and author of “Great in Bed” (DK Publishing, 2011), pointed out that ambiguity is nothing new in sexual research.

“I’m not sure why some people get caught up in this desire to find this anatomic thing that is the end all be all,” Herbenick said.

Findings from the well-known Australian researcher Dr. Helen O’Connell show the vagina, clitoris and urethra may act as “clitoral complex,” during sex, Herbenick said. Any time one of these parts is moved or stimulated, it moves and stimulates the others.

“We don’t even have orgasm all figured out yet, I don’t why we would expect to have the G-spot figured out,” Herbenick said. 

Source: A new review of 60 years of evidence suggests that the G-spot doesn’t exist.

g-google-plus

Editorial:

In 2001, the G-spot was finally recognized as a functioning female anatomical organ, and was given the medical term: female prostate.  You would think this medical recognition ended the debate about the ‘myth of the G-spot but controversy makes for good news..

Zaviacic, M. The Human Female Prostate: From Vestigial Skene’s Paraurethral Glands and Ducts to Woman’s Functional Prostate. Bratislava: Slovak Academic Press, 1999

The decision to accept Zaviacic’s findings about the female prostate was made in 2001 but was not published until 2007 in Teminologia Histologica; International terms for Human Cytology  and Histology. This book is sale or can be ordered by phone (800) 638-3030 from L L & W customer service. 

See Related Article Find the G Spot: http://lovebiochemicals.com/love-biochemicals/love-biochemicals-find-the-g-spot/

Keywords: falling into love; biochemicals; love; love biochemicals, basis for love, chemicals, pheromones, lust; sexual desire; love chemicals limerence; worldly love; transcendent love; world-denying love; erotic love; social bonds; sex, kiss, kissing, touch, tactile sensations, erogenous zones, neural messages, estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, vasopressin, mullerian inhibiting substance (MIS), oxytocin, cortisol, prolactin, vasopression, dehydroepiandrosterone(DHEA) , androstenedione, dopamine, allopregnenolone, serotonin, brain, B spot, L spot, N spot, CUGA spots, C spot, U Spot, G Spot, A Spot, honey love pot, O spot, orgasm, orgasms, female orgasm, female orgasm explained, female ejaculation, female ejaculation explained, female orgasm explained blueprint

Posted in Love Biochemicals, Orgasm, Sex | Tagged | Leave a comment

Love Biochemicals Orgasm Overdrive Danger

 

Love Biochemicals Orgasm Overdrive Can Lead to Death

Brazilian girl dies after a continuous orgasm of 12 minutes with a friend

Death of student Bianca Borges Bezerra, 21, from Belém (Brazil), which went into trance, having a prolonged orgasm for 12 minutes, and ended up dead. The young woman was having a relationship with a girl friend from college. The hospital that received Bianca confirmed that the continuous orgasm of 12 minutes was the cause of death.
o-orgasm-mouth-lovebiochemicals

“She strongly held the mattress with her nails, opened her mouth in the form of ‘O’, and her eye pupils were spinning around in circles as if they were loose inside her eyes,” said the friend who was present during the tragedy.

Her friend also said that, she became suspicious when, at 10 minutes, Bianca continued in the same position, eyes rolling, mouth open and screaming loudly. “At twelve minutes she went out, and I ran after an ambulance”, said the friend.

At the request of the family, the police is investigating this case.

###
Continuous orgasm trance can be considered a “mind-bending orgasm”, but usually does not end up in death.  A mind-bending orgasm is like being under the influence.

Love Biochemicals that surge through the body during orgasm include oxytocin, cortisol, pheromones, and prolactin. There is some evidence showing that oxytocin (produced by dopamine) levels increase during sexual arousal and orgasm in both men and women. The combination of oxytocin and female hormones like estrogen in women, encourage an emotional attachment with a partner.

###

Do you know it’s Global Orgasm for Peace Day? Watch as Adam Gabbatt finds out in NY http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/video/2011/dec/21/global-orgasm-for-peace-day-video
Posted in Culture, News, Movies, Love Biochemicals, Love Chemicals, Orgasm, Sex | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Love Biochemicals: Find the G-spot

Love Biochemicals: The G-spot

Love Biochemicals and hormones released with g-spot stimulation are as a result of stimulation by the nervous system; a process performed by neuroendocrine cells. The only hormone this decade known to be produced by the female prostate in this way is  serotonin. Serotonin plays an active role in many functions of the body. The G-spot known by the proper medical term as the female prostate is thought to be influenced by estrogens.

The G-Spot

Do not get a G-Shot (not necessary if you locate the G-spot naturally).  A waste of your money while making some doctor wealthy.  See the horrible side effects.

Keywords: Love Biochemicals, hormones, g-spot stimulation, nervous system,   neuroendocrine cells, serotonin. female prostate. estrogens

Posted in Love Biochemicals, Sex | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Love Biochemicals: Testosterone–Raising Testosterone Levels

 

Testosterone is important for both men and women when it comes to the Love Biochemicals.  But is it is critical for men’s virility, sexuality, and strength.

Here are a few people talking about how to naturally increase testosterone levels.  As always, use your common sense while listening to these methods and like any advice, speak to your own medical expert before trying anything new.  You are responsible for your own body and health.

How to Raise Testosterone Levels Naturally

Symptoms of Low Testosterone

Symptoms of Low Testosterone

 

How to Determine Testosterone Levels

Testosterone Production

How to Increase Testosterone Naturally

Testosterone Superfoods to increase Testosterone Levels

 

Keywords: love biochemicals, testosterone, erection, hormones, love chemicals, testosterone levels, naturally raise testosterone

Posted in Love Biochemicals, Love Chemicals, Sex | Tagged | Leave a comment

Female Orgasm Proof “on camera”

Female orgasm captured in series of brain scans

The animation will help scientists understand how the female brain conducts the symphony of activity that leads to an orgasm.

Two areas of the B-Spot (brain) that get activated are the hypothalamus and nucleus accumbens. After orgasm, activity in the hypothalamus and nucleus accumbens gradually calms down.

Scientists have used brain scan images to create the world’s first movie of the female brain as it approaches, experiences and recovers from an orgasm. The animation reveals the steady buildup of activity in the brain as disparate regions flicker into life and then come together in a crescendo of activity before gently settling back down again.

brain-mri-b-spot-female-orgasm

fMRI images of a woman’s brain as she experiences an orgasm. Oxygen levels in the blood correspond to the activity of different brain regions and are represented here on a spectrum from dark red (lowest) to yellow/white (highest). Twenty snapshots of the data have been taken from a 12-minute sequence during which she approaches orgasm, achieves orgasm and then enters a refractory period.
Video: TheVisualMD.com

brain-4

The five-minute movie shows how activity changes across 80 separate regions of the brain in snapshots taken every two seconds. The animation uses a “hot metal” colour scale that begins at dark red and progresses through orange and yellow to white at the highest levels of activity

brain-2

By studying people who have orgasms, Professor Barry Komisaruk, a psychologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey and his team hope to uncover what goes wrong in both men and women who cannot reach sexual climax.

brain-1

The animation was compiled from sequential brain scans of Nan Wise, a 54-year-old PhD student and sex therapist in Komisaruk’s lab. “It’s my dissertation,” Wise told the Guardian. “I’m committed to it.”

Feet of couple in bed

To make the animation, researchers monitored a woman’s brain as she lay in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner and stimulated herself. The research will help scientists to understand how the brain conducts the symphony of activity that leads to sexual climax in a woman.

As the animation plays, activity first builds up in the genital area of the sensory cortex, a response to being touched in that region. Activity then spreads to the limbic system, a collection of brain structures involved in emotions and long-term memory.

As the orgasm arrives, activity shoots up in two parts of the brain called the cerebellum and the frontal cortex, perhaps because of greater muscle tension. During orgasm, activity reaches a peak in the hypothalamus, which releases a chemical called oxytocin that causes pleasurable sensations and stimulates the uterus to contract. Activity also peaks in the nucleus accumbens, an area linked to reward and pleasure.

After orgasm, the activity in all these regions gradually calms down.

“It’s a beautiful system in which to study the brain’s connectivity,” Komisaruk said. “We expect that this movie, a dynamic representation of the gradual buildup of brain activity to a climax, followed by resolution, will facilitate our understanding of pathological conditions such as anorgasmia by emphasising where in the brain the sequential process breaks down.”

brain-3

In a new technique being developed by Komisaruk, people inside the scanner can see their own brain activity on a screen almost instantaneously. Through this “neurobiofeedback”, Komisaruk speculates that people might be able to learn how to change their brain activity, a feat that could perhaps help treat a broad range of conditions, such as anxiety, depression and pain.

“We’re using orgasm as a way of producing pleasure. If we can learn how to activate the pleasure regions of the brain then that could have wider applications,” he said.

Source:  Ian Sample, Washington DC guardian.co.uk, Monday 14 November 2011

Related:

I had an orgasm in an MRI scanner

Kayt Sukel went to extraordinary lengths to help researchers learn more about the neuroscience of the female orgasm

Kayt Sukel before entering the MRI scanner for orgasm research

Kayt Sukel before entering the MRI scanner. On the right is orgasm researcher Barry Komisaruk. On the left is PhD student Nan Wise. Photograph: Kayt Sukel

The first question, invariably, is, “Excuse me? You had a what where?” It’s not a surprise, really. People may not be shocked if you tell them you managed a wank on, say, the train or even in a public restroom. But when you announce that you took part in an orgasm study and managed to reach climax in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner as it recorded the blood flow in your brain? Well, that’s not something one hears every day.

It’s not the most romantic spot one might engage in self-loving. In fact, if you’ve ever spent time in an MRI scanner, it may seem nearly impossible. It’s claustrophobic, dark and very, very loud in that cramped chamber. But, both as research for my book Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex and Relationships, and for my own morbid curiosity, I volunteered to help out Rutgers University’s legendary orgasm researcher, Barry Komisaruk, and come for the science.

The second question people ask me is, “How on Earth did you manage it?” The simple answer: keeping as still as humanly possible. If you move too much during an fMRI you can compromise the data.

Kayt Sukel with an 'orgasm mask' for use in an MRI scanner
Kayt Sukel with the ‘orgasm mask’. Photograph: Kayt Sukel

A few weeks before my scanning session, Komisaruk’s associate, PhD student and sex therapist Nan Wise, walked me through the procedure. She said to help keep movement to a minimum (and the data clean), I would be fitted with a breathable plastic mesh helmet that would be screwed to the scanner bed. I’d be locked in and need the assistance of others to get out of the contraption.

I’ll be honest, I’d never previously considered the amount of movement in my orgasm habits prior to that conversation. I started to worry that I might not be up to the task. But when I mentioned my fears, Wise laughed.

“I know you can do it. Just practice,” she said. “You know what they say. Practice makes perfect!”

For the next two weeks, I did just that. To help optimise my body movement for fMRI, I attached a small bell – an ornament belonging to my cat – to my forehead with some duct tape.

Wise was right. With practice I diminished any jingling sound to something manageable, no matter how raucous I may have felt on the inside. And once she and Komisaruk had bolted me to the scanner bed, while it wasn’t easy to work up to an orgasm, I found it wasn’t quite as difficult as I had imagined.

Kayt Sukel’s first book, Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex and Relationships, will be published in February 2012

Additional reading:   Sex on the brain: Orgasms unlock altered consciousness

mri-female-orgasm

keywords: female orgasm, nucleus accumbens, hypothalamus, oxytocin, pleasure, b-spot, brain, climax, fMRI, sexual climax in a woman, anorgasmia, Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex and Relationships

Posted in Love Biochemicals, Orgasm, Sex | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Orgasm Love Biochemicals …Cure Hunger, Bring Happiness?

 

Orgasm Love Biochemicals …Cure Hunger and bring happiness?

Orgasmic Meditation (OM)

What do you want? What do you truly want? If you’re like most people, that simple question can be the hardest to answer. It’s your internal compass. It’s name is desire.

The 7 Rings of Desire® are aspects of the desire that may reside inside of you.

“Let yourself be gently pulled by the deeper desire of what you want.” – Rumi

Love-Bucket-Sex-Ring-of-Desire-Drive-Her-DesireLove-Bucket-Sex-Ring-of-Desire-Drive-Her-Desire

Sex rooted in orgasm will bring connection.
There is a different kind of power that you can feel in your life. You will find it through your sex.
It’s a sex that is rooted in orgasm. (the kind of orgasm we speak about) activates the love biochemicals of connection.

http://SexRingofDesire.com

Posted in Love Biochemicals, Orgasm, Sex | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Oxytocin The"moral molecule" with Paul Zak

Where does morality come from — physically, in the brain? In this talk neuroeconomist Paul Zak shows why he believes oxytocin (he calls it “the moral molecule”) is responsible for trust, empathy, and other feelings that help build a stable society.

Oxytocin is created both in the brain and the blood.  It is released during sex in both men and women.  It plays a huge part in pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Oxytocin, Paul Zak, shows, that trustworthy people are more “moral.”  In his experiment, there is a gifting experience that increases with each share.  The transfers showed trustworthiness.  The reciprocity experience produced more oxytocin.

Oxytocin via a nasal inhaler increased the transfer of the gift.  These studies showed increase in gift transfers.  Raising oxytocin creates the experience of sharing and donating with strangers.

Oxytocin can be raised with massage, dancing, praying and meditating.  Increases in oxytocin also increases feelings of empathy.  Paul Zak says that it is empathy that makes us, the human animal, moral.

Adam Smith, author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments,  said we are social creatures, and when we do something that makes another person happy, we get to share those happy feelings.

The oxytocin molecule does not work the same for everyone.  About 5% of the population DOES NOT release oxytocin on stimulus.  These folks are not sharing, they are stingy.  Psychopaths fall into this category.  This may be due to poor nurturing as a child.

Women can have thwarted oxytocin producing systems if they have been sexually assaulted.   High stress inhibits oxytocin in women and men.

In men additional bursts of testosterone make men more selfish.  Men  have ten times the testosterone as women.  Testosterone also makes us want to punish those who act immorally.

Interesting story about weddings and oxytocin.
Bride and Groom wedding couple weddings and oxytocin

 

Bride has the greatest increase in oxytocin.  Next is the mother-of-the-bride.  Then groom’s father, then the groom, then family and friends.  The wedding ritual connects us to the new couple.  Also the bride’s rise in oxytocin connects her with sexual desire to her new husband.

Connecting with other people in person and through social media can increase oxytocin.

social-spike-oxytocin

It was reported that in one incidence there was a 150% increase in oxytocin via social media.   The reason, the young man was interacting on his girlfriend’s facebook page.

Connecting to other’s raises levels of oxytocin.  LOVE BIOCHEMICALS especially oxytocin connect us with the bond of lovematism.  Lovematism includes sexual magnetism and that is part of the lover’s bond.

Oxytocin makes us feel what other people feel. 

If you want to increase someone’s oxytocin, try this:  Give a HUG! 

Paul “Dr. Love” says eight hugs a day makes the world and your life better.

lovematism-heart-hug

Lovematism symbols include the heart hug.

need-a-hug

lovematism2Callouts

hug

Posted in Culture, News, Movies, Hugs, Love Biochemicals, Love Chemicals | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Is love just a chemical cocktail?

Is love just a chemical cocktail?

Couple kissing

A rich experience, or just a bunch of chemicals?

It is said that love is a drug. But is it just a drug?

That is the contention of Larry Young, a professor of neuroscience at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Writing in the respected scientific journal Nature, Professor Young argues that love can be explained by a series of neurochemical events in specific brain areas.

If it is true, he says, people will no longer have to rely on oysters or chocolates to create a loving mood.

Instead, it will be possible for scientists to develop aphrodisiacs – chemicals that would make people fall in love with the first person they see.

And for those who have fallen in love with someone they shouldn’t have, there could be an antidote to unrequited love.

There is even the prospect of a genetic “love test” to assess whether two potential love-birds are predisposed to a happy married life.

Not poetry

Poets would have us believe that love is one of those things that are beyond understanding.

But that concept is anathema to Professor Young.

Oyster

Oysters are known as one of the more traditional aphrodisiacs

“I’m not sure we’ll be able to understand it fully,” he said.

“But my belief is that our emotions have evolved from behaviours and emotions that are in the animal kingdom.

“I don’t think that the way a mother loves her baby is that different to a mother’s love in a chimpanzee or a rhesus monkey – or even a rat.”

In animals, scientists have observed that a chemical called oxytocin is involved in developing a bond between a mother and her young.

Professor Young believes it is very likely that a similar process is going on in humans.

“It’s just that when we experience these emotions they are so rich we can’t imagine that they are just a series of chemical events,” he said.

But even if that is true of maternal love, is romantic love simply down to a squirt of oxytocin and a few other love chemicals at a timely moment?

Professor Young thinks it might be.

Intense bonds

Researchers have found that oxytocin is involved in the bonding of male and the female prairie voles, which like humans, form an intense bond with each other that lasts for a very long time.

And there have been studies in humans that show that oxytocin increases trust – the ability to read the emotions of others.

So, Professor Young argues that it makes sense that the same sort of molecule might be involved in strengthening the bond between individuals.

We shouldn’t think that this perspective on its own provides a full understanding of what love is

Professor Nick Bostrom
Oxford University

He believes there are other chemicals involved too – it is just a matter of doing the research and finding out which ones they are.

“I’m sure that we are just beginning to tap the surface,” he said.

“There are hundreds of signalling molecules in the brain – they all act in different brain areas.

“I think one day we will have a much better understanding of how all these chemicals interact and act in specific brain areas that have specific function that give rise to these complex emotions.”

Other scientists argue that upbringing and psychology play a part.

Professor Nick Bostrom, director of Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute, said: “We shouldn’t think that this perspective on its own provides a full understanding of what love is.

“There are also evolutionary, psychological, sociological, phenomenological (a philosophical approach and method of qualitative research) and humanistic perspectives that offer important insights.”

“Nurture has an important part to play,” Professor Young conceeds.

“But the way nurture works is through changing neurochemistry.

“We know from studies in humans that women that have experienced abuse or neglect early in their life have decreased levels of oxytocin in their brain.

Perfume

Some perfumes contain oxytocin, a chemical which helps human bonding

“So I totally agree that our experiences have a huge impact on our ability to form relationships – but that impact occurs through changes in neurochemistry and gene expression.”

So, if love really is just a complex chemical reaction, could that most powerful of human emotions be manipulated?

“Oxytocin increases eye gaze, increases our ability to recognise emotions in others,” Professor Young said.

“It may actually enhance our ability to form relationships, and so it is a very real possibility that something like oxytocin could be used in conjunction with marital therapies to bring back that spark.”

There are already perfumes on the market containing oxytocin, but Professor Young believes the levels are too low for it to be an effective aphrodisiac.

“But I think in the future we can develop drugs that readily pass into the brain and can target certain brain areas that could do this,” he said.

Professor Bostrom believes it will become increasingly possible to manipulate the neurological mechanisms that play a role in romantic attachment.

“Used wisely, such pharmacology could enhance human experience and mitigate unnecessary suffering.

“However, this kind of manipulation would raise a thicket of ethical and cultural issues, which would need to be carefully explored.”

By Pallab Ghosh
BBC News science correspondent

Love Biochemicals like oytocin connect us to others in friendship and the bond of lovematism.

lovematism-logo

Posted in Culture, News, Movies, Love Biochemicals, Love Chemicals | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Love Biochemicals and Female Orgasm

 

Love Biochemical Oxytocin was under attack  (see story) so we decided to see what else they were saying about women, orgasms, and sex drive.

Why does the female orgasm exist?

Decades of research have failed to answer the question of why the female orgasm exists — and two recent conflicting studies on the subject have hardly changed that. Interestingly enough, though, both focus on a theory sure to anger some women: that their ability to climax is the mere byproduct of men’s orgasm, which has a clear evolutionary purpose. We may not have proof of this one way or another, but it’s worth exploring the potential cultural implications.

Big O o-spot b-spot orgasm The most obvious explanation for the female big “O” is that it motivates women to have more sex, resulting in more babies (or, in wonkier terms, “reproductive success”). Another intuitive theory is that it serves to cement feelings of love and intimacy, thereby supporting parental investment. Then there’s the, um, evocatively named “sperm upsuck” theory — that uterine contractions during orgasm help draw in little swimmers. But many of these approaches have been empirically discredited and it’s the “byproduct” theory that has been held in increasing esteem by researchers.

The thinking behind the “male nipples” explanation, as I like to call it, is that women have the tissues and nerve pathways needed for orgasm simply because of their shared embryological origins with males, whose orgasms serve a clear evolutionary purpose. In other words, women have orgasms for the same reason men have nipples. On the face of it, the byproduct theory seems rather male-focused and maybe even anti-feminist. It falls right in step with the Freudian notion of women’s penis envy: Men have prominent, easily orgasmic members, while we ladies are stuck with our itty-bitty imitator, the clitoris.

But as Elisabeth Lloyd, a philosopher of biology, argued in her 2005 book “The Case of the Female Orgasm: Bias in the Science of Evolution,” “The real problem with this view is that it assumes that in order to be really important, female sexuality, and in particular female orgasm, must have been a direct target of natural selection among females. But there is no reason at all to think that only directly selected traits are ‘important.’” She points to examples of valued traits that aren’t directly selected: “refined musical ability, the ability to design rockets, and even the ability to read.”

On the other hand, it’s also possible that the byproduct view could actually support feminist efforts against the so-called medicalization of female pleasure. “If female orgasm is seen as having no particular evolutionary function, but rather as an evolutionary freebie, then many diagnoses of ‘Female Orgasmic Disorder’ would be out the window, and women anywhere on the spectrum of orgasmic performance might be seen as normal,” Lloyd writes in an upcoming article. She argues that this view, which she refers to as the “fantastic bonus” theory, has the benefit of casting “all women as equally ‘normal’ in their orgasmic responses to heterosexual intercourse. The account expects no particular ‘adaptive’ set of responses to intercourse, and thus privileges none.” Meaning, “women who don’t have orgasm at all are as normal as women who always have orgasm with intercourse.”

That just might throw a wrench into pharmaceutical companies’ machinations over the potential for a “female Viagra.” Speaking of, Leonore Tiefer created the New View Campaign to “challenge the distorted and oversimplified messages about sexuality that the pharmaceutical industry relies on.” She wrote me in an email that an orgasm is “a nice thing,” but “it doesn’t last very long, and it’s not the easiest thing to have, so I think it’s overrated.” Tiefer, a psychiatry professor at New York University, quoted journalist Malcolm Muggeridge: “The orgasm has replaced the cross as the focus of human longing and fulfillment.” That line, she says, “summarizes for me the symbolic importance of the orgasm in contemporary life.” As for the uncertainty surrounding it, she says: “It’s mysterious, I think, because its symbolic value is so high (it ‘proves’ to a partner and to oneself that one is sexual, satisfied, fully female) and yet the material essence is complicated.”

Carol Queen, a legendary staff sexologist at Good Vibrations, isn’t convinced that the female climax is an inherently enigmatic creature. “The idea that women’s orgasm is mysterious is simply cultural, and it has developed in a culture that actively refuses to give its youth good information about sexual functioning, especially arousal and pleasure, and which is loaded with subcultures and communities that actively encourage fear of sex, shame, body image issues, confusion about what sex ‘means,’ and other responses that distance people from sexual possibility and pleasure,” she says. “The idea that women have a difficult time having access to pleasure, or scientists can’t imagine why on earth that pleasure is valuable — that’s just another layer of icing on this icky cake.”

Ultimately, of course, the cultural outcome and feminist analysis of the byproduct theory say nothing of its actual scientific merits. As Lloyd says, “I am not a believer in deriving social norms from biological findings, whether they’re about adaptations or not.” The cultural importance of the female orgasm doesn’t have to be determined by its evolutionary origins. So much in our sexual lives is disconnected from baby-making. And let’s not forget one of the things the birth control pill taught us: separating pleasure from reproduction can be tremendously empowering — and fun.

 

Source
http://www.salon.com/life/sex/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2011/09/10/orgasm

P.S. Re: Her Sex Drive

If your woman’s Sex Ring of Desire is tarnished or non-existent…You Owe it to Yourself to

Discover How to Drive Her Desire by “shining up” her Sex Ring of Desire to Revive Her Drive!  Click Here

Posted in Culture, News, Movies, Love Biochemicals, Love Chemicals, Orgasm, Sex | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Love Biochemicals: Oxytocin Myth?

Is there a relationship or lack thereof between oxytocin, orgasm, and emotion?

This is from Salon and the writer references recent buzz and one doctor’s responses.

The foreplay

This week I started having flashbacks to the hookup hysteria of a few years back. It started with a Daily Mail piece headlined, “Sex: Why it makes women fall in love — but just makes men want MORE!” Other outlets picked up on the story and the women’s blog the Frisky bleakly concluded, “After sex, men are feeling satiated, perhaps thinking of sleep or pizza, or the next time we’ll do them and we are stuck wondering whether or not we love him.”

The original report, if you can even call it that, claimed to be about a recent study out of Rutgers University, but much of the content — especially about how orgasms cause a flood of oxytocin, commonly referred to as the “cuddle drug,” that makes women indiscriminately fall in love — was attributed to a U.K. doctor who had nada to do with the actual research. This bait-and-switch threw me for a loop, but I eventually tracked down the researcher who inspired these grand, sweeping statements. Barry Komisaruk, a professor of psychology at Rutgers, says he found no such thing.

It’s tempting to shrug off misreporting by the infamous Daily Mail, but it’s far from the first publication to further the oxytocin love story. This popularly accepted wisdom has also been used to back up moral arguments against premarital sex, sometimes by influential officials — like Eric Keroack, a Department of Health and Human Services appointee under President George W. Bush, who believed casual sex depleted women’s stores of oxytocin thereby ruining their ability to romantically bond. I talked to Komisaruk about what we really know about women, orgasms and love.

What did you actually find with regard to orgasms and oxytocin in women?

During orgasm in women, I see activation of the dopamine target region, which is the nucleus accumbens, and activation of the oxytocin-producing region of the hypothalamus. What that means is that during orgasm, we’re not measuring dopamine or oxytocin directly, but we’re measuring the activity of brain regions that respond to dopamine and the brain regions that produce and release oxytocin.

How does that compare to orgasm in men?

You can’t exactly compare it, because it’s apples and oranges. We’re just beginning to study sexual response and orgasm in men. The only other people who recently have studied orgasm in men is a group in Holland and they use a PET scan, a very different method from the functional MRI we used. They claim that there are some differences in orgasm between men and women, but overall I would say, based on their research, that the similarities are much greater than the differences in orgasm between men and women.

That’s not at all the message communicated in the media. Usually, you see reporting on how orgasms cause women to be flooded with far more oxytocin –

It’s true that women have a peak of oxytocin at the time of orgasm, whereas men have a more gradual increase, but that’s based on blood level measurements. I have to say something very important that people don’t recognize, particularly in the mass media: Oxytocin is both a hormone and a neurotransmitter. That means it’s released into the blood as a hormone from the pituitary gland at the same time it’s released into the brain as a neurotransmitter. The oxytocin released in the brain could be having different properties and different effects than the oxytocin that’s released into the bloodstream. 

When it’s released into the bloodstream it mainly produces contractions of the uterus (which may serve to pull semen into the uterus and helps push out the fetus during childbirth) and the mammary glands (which squeezes out milk into the baby’s mouth). Very little oxytocin gets into the brain from the blood, and any effect of oxytocin on behavior is due to its release in the brain as a neurotransmitter. We don’t really know what effect it has in humans.

It’s so often referred to as “the cuddle drug,” the “love hormone” –

The evidence of stimulating pair bonding and cuddling, that’s based on injection of oxytocin directly into the brain in rodents. There’s no evidence like that in humans. I keep checking the literature on that because I’m very interested in it, but there’s actually no evidence of oxytocin as a love hormone in humans. You have to be very careful about any romantic role attributed to humans based on research on non-humans.

Just to be utterly clear: Is there any evidence to back up the idea that oxytocin leads women to experience greater post-coital feelings of love than men?

There’s really no evidence of it. Somehow it caught the imagination of the public, but it’s based on rodents. It’s possible, I’m not saying it’s impossible, but there’s no experimental evidence to support it — in humans.

Not only are these conclusions a huge leap, but I’ve seen them used to further political arguments — for example, against casual sex, the idea being that it’s more harmful to women because they become more emotionally attached.

Yeah, yeah, I know.

So any time that we see oxytocin broadly linked to love, that is an unmerited simplification?

What one can say is that during orgasm oxytocin is liberated into the blood — that’s been shown. There’s also some evidence that oxytocin is released into the blood during hugging … but, again, that’s oxytocin released into the blood. That could be a response to the loving behavior rather than a cause. It’s a correlative of it, it could just be a side effect, because oxytocin in the blood doesn’t have any significant behavioral effect.

Now, it’s possible, and I would even say likely, that orgasm and maybe hugging cause the release of oxytocin in various places in the brain. But there’s no evidence that such oxytocin that’s released into the brain has any effect on behavior in humans.

So even having evidence of oxytocin released in the brain, we don’t know that it would result in feelings of love.

That’s right. It’s extremely difficult to show that — you can inject the oxytocin into the brain in animals but you can’t do that in humans. It’s very likely that something like that happens but there’s no evidence of it and you can’t jump to conclusions based on something that seems logical, because we’re always fooled and surprised by mother nature. There’s an expression, “It may be logical, but it’s not biological” — or at least it hasn’t been shown biologically in this case.

Right, it seems to make intuitive sense but there isn’t evidence to back it up. 

Exactly.

Source: http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/09/01/orgasms_love/index.html

Does the aphorism  “It may be logical, but it’s not biological,” ring true?

Posted in Culture, News, Movies, Love Biochemicals, Love Chemicals, Sex | Tagged , , | 1 Comment