Hormones in Semen

[Guest guest]

Here is an interesting story.

Ora

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story & u=/nm/20020626/sc_nm/health_semen_dc\

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Yahoo! News

Hormones in Semen Shown to

Make Women Feel Good

Wed Jun 26, 2:09 PM ET

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.