Word: oxytocin
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Endocrinologists have known for years that oxytocin, released by the pituitary gland, ovaries and testes, helps trigger childbirth contractions, milk production during nursing and the pelvic shudders women experience during orgasm (and possibly the contractions during male orgasm as well). The hormone is believed to play a vital role in mother-child bonding and may do the same for new fathers: oxytocin surges when a new dad holds his bundle of joy. Some researchers also think of oxytocin as a cuddle chemical. Preliminary studies by psychiatrist Kathleen Light at the University of North Carolina have found that oxytocin levels rise...
...there's increasing evidence that oxytocin is also involved in deeper bonding. It certainly plays that role in a much studied little rodent called the prairie vole, which is famous for its fidelity to its mate. The critter's brain releases a rush of oxytocin as it bonds with its beloved. Block the chemical, and voles fail to make a connection. Inject more of the hormone, and they fall for each other even faster...
...similar kind of imprinting might take place in humans. "Oxytocin release may help us bond to certain features in our partners," says Pfaus. "It's probably part of the mechanism that generates the template of what we find attractive." The next time you see your partner or someone like your partner, he theorizes, "the oxytocin is activated. It doesn't mean you have to be aroused. You just think, God, what a beautiful woman"--which might explain why we're attracted to the same type over and over...
...says Dr. Ronald Glaser, director of the Institute of Behavioral Medicine Research at Ohio State University. Thanks to a better understanding of the biochemistry of arousal, as well as advances in imaging techniques, doctors are closing in on some possibilities. Their efforts are leading them to the hormone oxytocin, which may be the key lubricant for the machinery of sex. Known for controlling the muscles of the uterus during childbirth, oxytocin surges up to five times as high as its normal blood level during orgasm. Studies in animals have also revealed oxytocin's softer side. It is responsible for helping...
While it is unlikely that oxytocin alone is responsible for sex's wide-ranging effects on the body, researchers hope that by tracking the hormone they can expose the network of body systems affected by sexual activity and identify other biochemical players along the way. Here's what they have learned...