Cause of orgasms

[Damo2600]

Actually I gues you are right.

 

Once I was taking ssri's, as people sometimes do (cough, cough), and the feeling was much like the day after you have sex after a prolonged period of abstinence. It is a relieved feeling yet is rather more constant i.e. happy :( .

 

You must recieve a rather high dose to produce such an explosive rush.

 

Is it similar to endorphins?

 

I have never heard of parasympathetic (cholinergic)

 

Josie :hyper:

[Biochemist]

...

You must recieve a rather high dose to produce such an explosive rush.

 

Is it similar to endorphins?

I am not sure what you meant, but SSRIs are not similar to endorphins. Endorphins are pharmacologically similar to opiates, like morphine. SSRIs have no pain relief, no respiratory depression, and the withdrawal syndrome is quite different. SSRIs tend to elevate mood, opiates tend to depress mood.

I have never heard of parasympathetic (cholinergic)

The nervous systems is divided up into separate pieces. First, central and peripheral (that is, brain and body). Peripheral is divided into motor and autonomic (essentially intentional movement and "automatic" management). Autonomic is divided in sympathetic (called "fight or flight") and parasympathetic (called "feed or breed"). These two counterbalancing autonomic components control things like blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate, digestion, cooling, often in concert with hormones and autocoids. The primary neurotransmitter in the parasympathetic nervous system is acetylcholine (hence "cholinergic"). The primary neurotransmitter in the sympathetic nervous system is norepinephrine (also known as noradrenaline, hence the system is also labeled "adrenergic"). Sympathetic tone is associated with high motor activity and high stress situations. Parasympathetic tone is associated with resting state and digestion.

 

I think most of this is upper division college physiology,but it crops up in some lower division classes as well.

[Buffy]

Hey this is categorically untrue. I have THREE settings. You must have left out eating and sleeping.

If any girl this side of Eleanor Roosevelt can't distract you from eating cheesecake or rouse you from a deep slumber, I'd begin to worry about your libido! :hihi:

 

Cheers,

Buffy

[Biochemist]

If any girl this side of Eleanor Roosevelt can't distract you from eating cheesecake or rouse you from a deep slumber, I'd begin to worry about your libido!

Well, not any girl, but there are some. You make a good point.

[Damo2600]

Hi,

 

The question I possibly should have asked is:

 

When the seratonin is released, during orgasm, are endorphins released as well?

 

Aren't endorphins a chemical in the brain that is also related to feelings of happiness?

 

Or are endorphins a chemical within the opiate?

 

If you understand...

 

Josie

[Biochemist]

When the seratonin is released, during orgasm, are endorphins released as well?

 

Aren't endorphins a chemical in the brain that is also related to feelings of happiness?

Now that I understand your question, let me first confess my ignorance, and then offer a couple of points.

 

1) the Orgasm question- Neurotransmitter activity during sexual arousal, orgasm and post-coitus recovery is very complex. Many neurotransmitters (and hormones, for that matter) modulate levels during sex. I think serotonin levels are thought to increase during orgasm, but I am not sure if a) it is causal or :hihi: if it is the same for both genders. Some peptides (like endorphins) are increased during orgasm as well.

 

But there is so much stuff going on concurrently during sex (changes in primary sex hormones, elevation in prolactin, dozens of changes in neurotransmitter peptides, including endorphin) that it is difficult to tease out cause from effect. Further, the obvious difficulty in experiemental control (how exactly do you measure specific neurotransmitter activity during orgasm without affecting other neurotransmitters...) makes any research (even really good research) a little suspect.

 

2) The Endorphin question-Endorphins are a neurotransmitter of the peptide class. That is, they are small amino acid strings. Ther are probably about 50 peptide neurotransmitters known, and I suspect we have only found a subset of the major ones. There could easily be thousands. Wikipedia has a good breakdown of neurotransmitters here:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurotransmitter

 

Endorphins are most famous because they act in the periaqueductal grey matter (part of the brain stem) in a fashion that is nearly identical to opiates like morphine. That is , opiates stimulate an endogenous receptor that was probably designed for use by endorphins (and enkephalins). Endorphins do make one "feel good" and they also alter perception of pain, just like opiates. Notably, they do not inhibit perception of pain (like local anesthetics). They change perception, by making pain less of a concern. Anyone on opiates knows exactly where the pain is. They just don't care about it.

[Damo2600]

Thanks Biochemist,

 

I see so there is a lot more going on than Seratonin and we can't even really see fully into the brain as this activity is going on.

 

Thanks you certainly know your stuff. Glad to know you are getting some as well.

 

Josie :hihi:

[Biochemist]

...Glad to know you are getting some as well.

You did not ask the question about making orgasm "good". I suspect that is where you could get an indication of participation.

 

Much more complicated, and certainly not for the Chemistry forum .

[Damo2600]

LOL not for the classroom either. I'm sure you are a great teacher and have very effective scientific methods of displaying these results. Perhaps another time...

 

Josie xx