Sexual Release: Oxygen, Hormones & Lobster
My mind is overwhelmed: what to do with the Daily Writing Challenge of Release? Release is associated with so many things. The release from prison or a relationship/marriage (which some may view as very similar to the latter). The act of releasing may include letting go of fears or expectations, sending off children as they morph into adults, a breaking-news secret outted, toxic gases puffing into the environment (from your own body or other, worse, ozone-depleting chemicals), or a fellow, loved individual snorting adios to their earthly body.
I think I’ll stick with the very first association that ker-blammed my cranial passage: Sexual Release. Yes, our society talks about sex but they never really talk about it. We see booty-licious twerking of mostly-naked body parts everywhere we glance and yet we rarely actually discuss the incredible, healthy, important, God-made act of sex. My friends say they always know when I’m “not getting any” because all I think and talk about is sex. Apparently I’m not alone — according to good ole Dr. Ruth (who, yes, is self-inflicted with some controversy lately) 25% of American adults haven’t had sex in a year. Yikes. What’s that saying: “Sex is like oxygen, you don’t notice it till you’re not getting any”?
TMI, and the fact that I have always been fascinated with sex and sexuality, aside. (In my next life I aim to be a Sex Therapist.) Why is it called Release? Is it because of the emotions involved? The fluids? The oxytocin (feel connected/love) and dopamine (feel rewarded) breakdancing through your bloodstream? The widening of the blood vessels? The release of calories? Saying goodbye to stress and sleeplessness (releasing us from wakefulness and into dreamland)?
Release, the verb, means to “allow or enable to escape from confinement; set free, allow (something) to move, act, or flow freely” (Oxford Dictionaries). Release, the noun, is “the action or process of releasing or being released”. How is someone, or something within that someone, released during the act of sexual intercourse?
My internet search unearthed some “interesting” data [insert an image of even me blushing here and a reminder to self to delete the search history before my children get their digits on this laptop]. I hadn’t even considered the “tie up and release” aspect, or the idea that a hickey could be “releasing” inflammation and broken blood vessels. And don’t even get me started on the rage-inducing blogs about giving your husband what he needs (because only men want and need sex, don’t you know?!) even when it isn’t important to you…(Have people not heard that way back in 1993 in USA, 1994 in Canada, and 2003 in UK, laws regarding marital rape were enacted?)
My findings about WHY it’s referred to as Sexual Release are dismal. (Again: we rarely really talk about sex so why did I believe I might find answers out there?) It seems I am forced to make my own conclusions (often a dangerous and ignorant act) and that would be that it’s all about the hormones. Hormonally speaking, there are several released during and after sex. According to John Burgess these include:
- Prolactin, which “cools you down” after sex
- Oxytocin, which is believed to help couples bond
- Epinephrine, which gets the heart pumping and increases blood flow
- Endorphins, the body’s own opiod neuropeptides
- Phenethylamine, triggers Dopamine which is part of the reward system
- Testosterone, a sex hormone
- Serotonin, which contributes to a feelings of well-being
That’s a lot of hormones! And there’s your science lesson for today. (Yay, STEAM! Sex involves all sorts of science, technology, engineering, arts, and math! But that’s a lesson for another day.) Your mnemonic lesson can easily be recalled as PePoets. You’re welcome.
Because even if my excavating of the sexual release site really only uncovered a list of hormones, at least I dug up this hilarious and truthful quote, with which I will leave you:
Sex is neither a sin nor a crime. It is one of those rare gifts from Mother Nature — like lobster only cheaper. Stephen Mason, Psychology Today
