When you fall asleep cuddling with your sweetheart after an orgasm, all kinds of hormones rush through your body. One of these is oxytocin, also known as the happiness or cuddle hormone. This hormone plays a super useful role, especially in women who become mothers. For example, the delivery is induced under the influence of oxytocin, and it allows the milk to flow during breastfeeding. But the substance seems to do even more in our body.
Oxytocin slows down the aging process
There is some evidence that oxytocin makes your skin look younger. The American dermatologist Nicole Hayre saw this in a small-scale study. She had the oxytocin levels of six women between the ages of 48 and 61 examined, took pictures of their faces and had them fill in how often they were in the sun. Hayre’s research found that the women with high oxytocin levels had younger-looking skin.
And Hayre is not alone in drawing this conclusion. Researchers at Korea’s Konkuk University collected skin samples from eight women of various ages (four were in their 20s, three were in their 60s). The skin samples received an aging treatment in the lab. Conclusion? Oxytocin protects the skin from the natural aging process. This effect was only visible in the skin samples of the young women.
More Estrogen Means More Sex
In addition to oxytocin, there is another hormone that is important for the skin: estrogen. Or rather: estrogens. This is a collective name for various hormones, including estradiol. While estrogens are essential for both men and women to function sexually, women have relatively more of them.
Research from the US National Institutes of Health shows that women who are sexually active have more estrogen in their bodies than women who don’t have sex. That’s in line with a 2013 study from the University of California, Santa Barbara. In that study, the saliva of 52 women was collected daily for one to two menstrual cycles. On the days when the women reported having had sex, their estradiol levels were significantly higher.
Although it is not entirely clear what exactly causes the increased estrogen level. For example, the researchers from the American health institution indicated that they did not know whether the women ejaculated, whether penetration took place and which partner initiated the sex, for example. In addition, the question is whether sex itself increases your estrogen level, or whether the presence of estrogen increases sex drive. The researchers suspect that it is a two-way street.
Estrogens are important for healthy skin
Why is that important? Because countless studies show that estrogens are super good for your skin. There are even women with the skin disease psoriasis who notice that their skin improves when they get pregnant.
If you happened to have gone through menopause, you may have noticed that your skin has thinned. This is mainly due to the decrease in estrogen. The number of wrinkles increases, the skin becomes drier and it loses collagen and thus elasticity. Women who receive hormone therapy during the menopause – and therefore take estrogen – usually get better skin in return.
We hear you thinking: nice that women (probably) have something to do with sex, but what about men? Unfortunately, there is no research on the link between a shiny male skin and estrogens. But that doesn’t make the orgasm any less delicious.