Posted on 06/26/2002 1:44:41 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
LONDON (Reuters) - Hormones in semen may help to ease female depression because women whose partners don't use condoms are less likely to feel down.
Scientists at the State University of New York suspect the mood-altering hormones are absorbed through the vagina and make women feel good but they stressed that their results are not an excuse for unprotected sex.
"I want to make it clear that we are not advocating that people abstain from using condoms," Gordon Gallup, who led the study, told New Scientist magazine on Wednesday.
"Clearly an unwanted pregnancy or a sexually transmitted disease would more than offset any advantageous psychological effects of semen," he added.
The researchers assessed the moods of 300 female students using a standard questionnaire. A score of more than 17 was considered moderately depressed.
Women whose partners never used condoms scored about eight on the test while those who never had sex without condoms scored 11.3. Women who weren't having sex at all scored about 13.5.
Depression in the students who sometimes or never used condoms was more severe the longer they went without sex.
The scientists said they looked at other factors, such as the use of oral contraceptives, frequency of sex and personality type, but found that none could account for the findings.
The magazine said the results are not a complete surprise because scientists know that semen contains several mood-altering hormones including testosterone.
"Some of these have been detected in a woman's blood within hours of exposure to semen," the magazine said.
The scientists suspect semen will have the same effect on women regardless of how they are exposed to it.
I have the perfect marketing jingle for you:
"Serving you is my pleasure"
I cannot stress enough that these scientists weren't crackpots, they were internationally respected, influential theorists, and all this was 'common knowledge', taken for granted and believed by pretty much everyone in the health and science fields. And the whole 'woman as vampire' and sex as contaminating and weakening for men (and whole races) was picked up by artists and writers, and shows up in many books and paintings from 1890-1940. Both works considered masterpieces and potboilers show the influence of these theories.
HORMONES IN SEMEN SHOWN TO MAKE WOMEN FEEL GOOD
I just want you all to know that I think women feel just fine whether they've got semen hormones or not. I guess I'm just a romantic.
BWWAAAHAHAh
I mean, that's very noble of you, Miss Chris.
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