Performing oral sex or having sex
without a condom may benefit both mental and physical health in
women, according to scientists who analyzed the effects of semen's
"mood-altering chemicals."
Researchers Gordon Gallup and Rebecca
Burch, both from State University of New York at Albany, and
psychologist Steven Platek of the University of Liverpool predicted
that because the ingredients in semen include "mind-altering"
drugs like mood-elevating estrone and oxytocin, affection-promoting
cortisol, sleep-inducing melatonin and antidepressants prolactin,
thyrotropin-releasing hormone and serotonin, women who have more
unprotected sex should be less depressed than those who have
protected sex.
Researchers conducted a survey assessing the sex lives and mental health of 293 college females from the SUNY-Albany campus.
All the female participants were asked
to fill out an anonymous, written questionnaire about different
aspects of their sexual behavior and to complete the Beck Depression
Inventory, a commonly used clinical measure of depressive symptoms.
Researchers indirectly measured seminal
plasma circulating in the woman’s body by how recently participants
had sex without condoms.
Results from the study, published in
the Archives of Sexual Behavior, showed that even after adjusting for
frequency of sexual intercourse, participants who had sex and "never"
used condoms showed significantly fewer depressive symptoms than
women who "usually" or "always" used condoms when
having sex.
Additionally, researchers found that
sexually active women who never used condoms also had fewer
depressive symptoms than women who abstained from sex altogether.
Surprisingly, really promiscuous women
who used condoms were just as depressed as women who practice total
abstinence, leading researchers to suggest that semen, not sex, makes
women happier.
Previous findings also suggest that
women exposed to semen perform better on concentration and cognitive
tasks and that a woman's body is able to detect 'foreign' semen that
differs from their long-term or recurrent sexual partner’s
signature semen.
A woman's ability to detect foreign
semen may be an evolutionary trait that prevents pregnancy from an
unfamiliar source because it signals a disinvested male partner who
is not as likely to provide for the offspring.
Researchers noted that women who have
unprotected sex with their partners may experience more significant
depression after a break-up with than those who were not as regularly
exposed to an ex-partner's semen.
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