Understanding Oxytocin in Women

The Importance of Oxytocin in Women

Women often associate oxytocin with conception, childbirth, and lactation. What many women don’t know is that oxytocin has a sexy side. We like to call it the love hormone.

The Facts about Oxytocin in Women

• Oxytocin plays a huge role in the non-procreative aspects of sex.
• Both women and men release oxytocin during foreplay and sex.
• Oxytocin contributes significantly to orgasm.

Arousal

Oxytocin is released in response to a variety of stimuli, including skin-to-skin contact, foreplay, and sex.

At normal levels, oxytocin encourages a mild desire for contact with your partner. Being touched, however, can lead to a rise in oxytocin levels. This rise in oxytocin levels causes a cascade of reactions within the body, including the release of endorphins and testosterone, which results in both biological and psychological arousal. Eventually, nerves in erogenous zones become sensitized, with continued contact causing even more oxytocin to be released. Arousal continues its upward climb from there.

Orgasm

Oxytocin also triggers powerful orgasms by causing genital nerves to fire spontaneously. During orgasm, male Oxytocin levels quintuple. But this is nothing compared to female oxytocin levels. Women need a lot of oxytocin to orgasm; so at peak sexual arousal, a woman’s oxytocin levels become stratospheric.

This isn’t the case for all women, however. Some women need a little help in this department. For these women, taking some oxytocin prior to sex, or a small daily dose can make a big difference. Even women who don’t have trouble reaching orgasm will have a heightened experience with some extra oxytocin.