Sexuality plays an important role in human life, regardless of gender, age, nationality. Sexuality is called a vast area, which includes biological, psychological, social and other reactions and functions, such as natural as breathing or digestion. Unlike animals, human sexuality is manifested not only for the sake of procreation. In addition, human sexuality, in addition to instincts, regulate cultural characteristics of the society in which he lives, different social aspects, in national legislation, and many other factors.

Biological aspects of sexuality

Talking about sexuality usually begins with biology, namely - with hormones. In fact, it was the hormones are the driving force of human sexual behavior. In recent years, functions of hormones have been studied extensively; they have learned to get by artificial means, and used for medical purposes.

The same hormones: women - estrogen and progesterone Progesterone - norm and pathology And men - androgens found in the body of both women and men, but in different concentrations. Androgens regulate the development of sexual characteristics in boys, and are responsible for the implementation of sexual function in men. Testosterone - the main androgen is associated not only with male sexuality Male sexuality - Myths and Facts But also with aggressive behavior.

Female sex hormones regulate the menstrual cycle and reproductive function in general, but whether they are related to sexual desire in women, has not yet been established. Perhaps the female libido, male-like, affect testosterone, which is also produced in women, but in small quantities.

Psychological aspects of sexuality

Since man - a social animal, his sexuality is defined not only biology is very important that he learns about sex throughout life, from early childhood. Even as a child a person in real life and in the movies sees how men treat women, how to create a family, in which there are children. He still does not understand why this happens, but it has formed an idea of ​​what it is - right. If a child sees many examples of unhappy families, or he is growing in such a family, in the future, it can have a variety of problems in the sexual sphere. The same can happen if the child is severely punished for what he is exploring their own sexual organs (as do all the children - this is a common manifestation of a healthy curiosity about one's own body). After punishing any expression of sexuality can cause a person a sense of guilt or anxiety Anxiety - how to distinguish normal from disease?   and sometimes to solve a similar problem, need expert help. A total ban on a date with the opposite sex (this is especially often face women) in puberty can also have a detrimental effect not sexuality.

On the other hand, sexuality is developing normally, if the child is a child could satisfy the curiosity in this area (ie, instead of saying, "You still early about such know" parents to answer questions based on the age of the child), and if he never made it clear that there is something immoral and dirty. Examples of happy, harmonious pair, first of all - their parents, too, have a positive effect on the development of sexuality.

Facts about the brain and human sexuality

The size is really important. Preoptic area of ​​the hypothalamus, which regulates many aspects of sexuality, male twice than in women and contains twice as many cells. This difference between the two parts of the brain appears around the age of four years.

"Not tonight, dear, I have a headache" .  For years, women who do not want to have sex, referred to a headache, but recent studies have shown that women who suffer from migraines, libido significantly higher than in those who regularly occur usual headaches .  Probably all a matter of serotonin .  High levels of serotonin is associated with low libido, while found that people who suffer from migraine headaches, lowered levels of serotonin .  According to polls, 30% of women who had sex during a migraine attack, the pain became weaker in 5 . 3% - has increased, while 17 . 5% it is completely gone .  Pretty hard to imagine that someone has sex with a severe headache, from which not even save painkillers, but 17 . 5% - this figure, because of which it is worth trying to overcome the pain .  In addition, a high libido between attacks can be considered as a compensation for the painful hours when a migraine once again makes itself felt .

How is the affection. One manifestation of sexuality - the formation of attachments that can be good if you get attached to a reliable partner, but it does not always happen: sometimes you are drawn to a person against all logic and with full understanding that you have a common future can not be. The fact is that during orgasm produces the hormone oxytocin - the same one that stands out and lactation. As a consequence, there is an attachment to the person with whom you have experienced an orgasm, and to overcome it is extremely difficult.

How do we decide who we are attracted? Studies have shown that when we are looking at a potential partner in the first place activated part of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, which has two fields: one decides what / who is attractive as a whole, the second - is what attracts us. For example, if the first area concludes that Ryan Gosling is very attractive, and the second determines that you personally still like Johnny Depp. However, the most sexy for us are the people who cause a reaction ventromedial prefrontal cortex - it emits an attractive face.

Types of sexuality

• Heterosexuality - attracted only to the opposite sex.
• Homosexuality - attracted only to people of your gender.
• Bisexuality - attraction to persons of both sexes; sometimes bisexual man gives preference to partners of the same or opposite sex, but can still have sex Sexual relations: how to bring passion   both and.
• Asexuality - lack of sexual attraction to people of any gender.
• Transgender - identifying themselves with sex that is different from their own biological sex.

If you are a woman, you probably noticed a strange pattern: whenever you feel angry or irritated, crying, complaining of a headache and malaise, or have suffered from a lack of sex, a number certainly was someone who sagely pronounced: "It's all hormones ". Most of us sated up with such generalizations. We want to get accurate answers to all questions, especially concerning female hormones and their effect on our sex life. Wanting something we want, but the exact answers to our questions are not so much.

Sexual desire

One of the greatest desires of every woman - to learn to control their hormones, to understand your body. However, there was a desire recently. Even some hundred years ago, women did not have a reliable contraceptive, but there were many children. Since children are born almost every year, until the climax was living about half of the women, and few of them had the time and inclination to worry about sagging libido (rather, they welcomed this age change), or try to better understand how the action of hormones .

The average life expectancy of a modern woman reaches eighty-five years. Modern woman longer remains active in all aspects of life, is able to control the birth and throughout life is going through one romantic adventure.

Because modern women better health and greater choice, it is quite natural that it seeks to improve the quality of life, especially the quality of sexual relations. Many women blame their sexual and personal problems and troubles hormones, but how they fair?

One of the most common sexual problems of women - loss of sexual desire. According to the statistics of American Scientists, forty-three percent of Americans suffer from "lack of sexual desire." Indeed, you can often hear women complain about the lack or total absence of interest in sex. But why is this happening?

Nowadays it is very fashionable to blame all the problems of hormones. But whether there is evidence that the hormones are in fact capable of completely destroying our sexual and personal life?

It's all about hormones?

The fact is that, despite the huge amount devoted to this vital topic of research, the precise relationship between female hormones and sexual desire so has not been established. Because:

• Until recently, the very possibility of the existence of this connection, the researchers looked too scandalous or controversial;
• lack of sexual desire is not harmful to a woman's life (from a medical point of view);
• Until recently, none of the pharmaceutical companies do not understand that the money spent on research in this area, with a positive result will pay off handsomely;
• very difficult to measure the desire to scientifically (there are no units in sexual desire).

Interestingly, while the majority of women believe that the loss of libido associated with hormonal disorders, many of them did not have a clue what the hormones, what is their purpose and function. Perhaps this is not surprising, given the complexity of this matter. It is possible that all doctors do not even understand what hormones are and what they need.

A woman's ovaries to produce large number of female hormones: estrogen and progesterone Progesterone - norm and pathology .

Also, a small amount of the ovaries produce male sex hormones: testosterone and androstenedione.

In the body of both men and women also produced two important hormones: follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing (LH) hormones.

• follicle stimulating hormone regulates the production of eggs in the ovaries.
• luteinizing hormone controls the production of sex hormones in the ovary. According to some scientists, the LH levels are closely associated with sexual desire.

Throughout the month of ovarian cycle in a woman's body there are two major events:

• the estrogen level slowly rises during the first half of the month, and after fourteen days gradually wanes.
• progesterone level rises sharply after ovulation and then decreases just before the onset of menses

What is the relationship to sexual hormones have a will?

If you ask women whether changing their level of sexual desire during the month, they will say yes, but very few people know exactly when this happens. Approximately half of the women notice that their sexual desire reaches its peak around the fourteenth day of the menstrual cycle The days of the menstrual cycle: Four phases But the other half is recognized that the peak of sexual desire in them are in the days preceding the onset of menses, or coincides with menstruation.

But if all women go through the same hormonal changes, why not all women with a matching ring feel sexual desire - or aversion to sex - at some point in the cycle? The answer to this question is unknown.

According to one theory - completely unscientific, it must be said - women who say they feel a surge of sexual desire just before menstruation actually just enjoy because of the aggravation of sexual feelings as a result of thickening of the uterine lining.

Women think that in this period increases the sensitivity of the vagina - perhaps this feeling arises because of some pressure or increase the uterus - so they get more pleasure from vaginal sex. However, this pleasure has nothing to do with an increase in sexual desire and can only be a response to the physical sensations in the genitals.

The excitement and libido

It is important to understand that the libido (sexual desire) - something quite different than the reaction that occurs when stimulation of the genitals, that is not the same as physical libido stimulation.

Incredibly, many women claim that their libido tends to zero, in fact, are not only able to survive the physical stimulation, but also easily reach orgasm. Their problem is that they do not feel the desire to have sex, do not experience the passion and desire.

Many women wonder whether Viagra help them improve sexual desire? No, he can not. Viagra helps men overcome impotence - erectile dysfunction, ie, erectile dysfunction (inability to achieve and maintain an erection). Viagra is useless for those who are not interested in sex because it does not affect sexual desire, but only the possibility of its implementation.

Currently being tested action of Viagra Viagra: tales of the twentieth century   women, but they are designed to study the effects of the drug on reproductive organs (whether it causes positive physical changes of the genitals). According to some, Viagra increases release of vaginal lubrication, and causes swelling of the tissues surrounding the vulva. But it is quite possible that Viagra may increase sexual desire, or to turn a woman into a sex bomb. This is nothing more than a myth. Perhaps that is why Viagra has not been certified for use in women.

More than twenty-five years ago, MD Helen Singer Kaplan wrote a book "sexual disorders", which caused a sensation in society. In particular, the adoption of Kaplan that "estrogen does not affect sexual desire in women," it seemed to many highly controversial. According to Kaplan, for libido in both sexes, testosterone is responsible. Furthermore, the author suggested that luteinizing hormone can then be used in a clinical setting to increase libido.

Have you changed something in the world of female sexuality Nine ways to experience their sexuality   since then? In 2006, pharmaceutical companies have begun to actively promote "the idea of ​​testosterone," and in specialized publications have appeared numerous studies, according to which it is testosterone will help women to recover from lack of sexual desire.

But in fact, the scientists tested the testosterone-based drugs on women over forty years, and specific positive results these tests have not been given. But side effects, including increased pilosity body, the appearance of age spots, deepening of the voice and clitoral enlargement, observed repeatedly.

However, some clinical evidence to support the efficacy of testosterone to improve sexual desire, is still available. And in 2007 the testosterone patch (Intrinsa) has been released for sale in the UK, USA and Germany. However, the patch could only use women with menopause due to surgery began ahead of time. Obviously, these women is extremely small. However, unofficial patch still is used to enhance sexual desire, but the information about the consequences of such an application is missing. Some doctors have reported a mixed reaction to the use of the patch.