Chapter 6 Sexual Arousal and Response

1. Chapter 6Sexual Arousal and Response

2. Sexual Arousal and Response • Many factors • Emotions • Hormones • Intimacy • Social

3. Sex Hormones • Steroid hormones (ovaries/testes) • Androgens (including testosterone) • Produced by testes, adrenal glands, & ovaries • Estrogens • Produced by ovaries & testes • Women & men produce both types

4. Sex Hormones • Neuropeptide hormones • Oxytocin (discussed next) • Dopamine facilitates sexual arousal • Serotonin inhibits sexual arousal • Male ejaculation causes a release • Blocks oxytocin

5. Oxytocin • Produced in the hypothalamus • Released during sexual arousal • Escalation during orgasm • Also during breast feeding • Creates bonds and feelings of attachment

6. Sex Hormones in Male Sexual Behavior • Testosterone • Linked to sexual desire & genital sensitivity • Castration leads to reduced sexual desire • Removes testes, hence most testosterone production • Still capable of erection, though its not likely

7. Sex Hormones in Female Sexual Behavior • Estrogens • Overall link between estrogen and female sexual behavior is unclear • Testosterone • Role as major libido hormone in females • Treatment for menopause or ovariectomy

8. How Much Testosterone is Necessary? • Two forms of testosterone (free and bound) • Free testosterone linked to libido • women have less free testosterone • cells are more sensitive • Testosterone levels decrease with aging • Fairly rapid decrease for women at menopause; more gradual decline for men • Testosterone Replacement Therapy

9. Sexuality and Diversity • Sexual attitudes and behaviors differ across culture • Behaviors, e.g. kissing, oral sex, foreplay • Erotic arousal, standards for attractiveness

10. The Brain and Sexual Arousal • Cerebral cortex (mental events) • Limbic system and sexual behavior • Neurotransmitters • Dopamine facilitates sexual arousal • Serotonin inhibits sexual arousal

11. The Senses and Sexual Arousal • All sensory systems can contribute to arousal • Touch, vision, smell, taste, hearing • Touch is the dominant “sexual sense” • Primary erogenous zones • Dense nerve endings • Secondary erogenous zones • Learned experience

12. Vision • Usually next in dominance • Visual stimuli • Men self-report higher arousal than women • Women & men have similar physiological response • Could be social

13. Other Senses • Smell may arouse or offend • Pheromones • Females secrete during fertile periods • Activate hypothalamus of hetero men • In men’s sweat • Activated… women/gay men • Taste plays a minor role • Probably hard to study… • Hearing plays a variable role • Some like noises; confirms pleasure

14. Aphrodisiacs • Substances believed to arouse sexual desire or increase capacity for sexual activity • Food • Drugs and alcohol (false…) • Yohimbine • True, positive for men with ED • Some Alleged Aphrodisiacs

15. Anaphrodisiacs • Inhibit sexual behavior • Drugs (e.g. opiates, tranquilizers) • Antihypertensives, antidepressants & antipsychotics • Birth control pills • Nicotine • Constricts blood flow • Possibly reduces circulating testosterone

16. Kaplan’s Three-Stage Model • Adds desire • Up to 33% women uninterested (lack desire) • 16% of men uninterested in sex • Not always started by desire

17. Sexual Response • Master’s and Johnson’s Four Phases • Excitement • Engorgement of blood and muscle tension • Heart rate, blood pressure • Plateau • Leveling off • Orgasm • Shortest period • Resolution • Return to normal

18. Orgasm • Men and women’s subjective descriptions of orgasm are similar • Most female orgasms result from stimulation of the clitoris • Grafenberg spot • Area on lower front wall of vagina, sensitive to pressure • Sometimes results in “ejaculation”

19. Sex Differences in Sexual Response • Greater variability in female response • Time through phases • Male refractory period • Recovery • Serotonin released • Women can experience multiple orgasms • So can men, just perhaps need more time

20. Age-Related Changes in the Sexual Response Cycle