Several thousand years ago, the female orgasm performed an essential reproductive function: it triggered ovulation during intercourse.
What is the use of the female orgasm? On the question, each woman has her own idea. But what scientists are trying to understand, they who have been digging into the subject for years, is the biological function of orgasm, its physiological utility. Faced with this, they have been kicking in touch for a long time.
Because a priori, the orgasm is useless. It accompanies the sexual relationship but does not condition it. It is not systematic, far from it, nor necessary for reproduction. So why, for what purpose, do women cum?
To ovulate?
Tapped by the question, a team of researchers may have identified some answers. Their work, published in the journal JEZ-Molecular and Developmental Evolution, trace the history of human ovulation, and suggest that orgasm may be a reminiscence of a time gone by when it occupied an essential function.
To support this thesis, they observed the reproductive behavior of other mammals. Some of them, like the cat or the rabbit, release a surge of hormones at the time of the sexual act, similar (physiologically, anyway) to an orgasm. This hormonal surge is a strong signal sent to the ovaries to release their eggs. Other mammals, including humans and monkeys, ovulate spontaneously.
However, during the evolution of mammals, the first form of ovulation preceded the second. This suggests, according to the researchers, that before occurring once a month to the complete indifference of most women, ovulation took place like rabbits, during intercourse, thanks to the hormonal surge that today we call it orgasm. “It is important to emphasize that it did not look like the female orgasm that we know”, specify the authors, quoted by the Guardian.
Other arguments
Throughout the ages, women have evolved and this hormonal surge has lost its reproductive utility, without ever completely disappearing in her – much good for her. However, “there has been a lot of discussion about whether orgasm has other functions, such as bonding,” the authors add.
The thesis is also based on an anatomical comparison between mammals with spontaneous ovulation and those which ovulate during the act. The former would tend to have an internal clitoris or close to the sexual canal, capable of being stimulated during intercourse, while the latter would have a more distant clitoris. The woman would thus retain this specificity of the past.
The authors agree that this work has limits, starting with the fact that it is “very difficult, if not impossible, to question non-human animals on the notion of sexual pleasure”! However, they constitute a track to explain an evolution, all in all very favorable to the human being.
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