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In an article published in the scientific journal Communications Biology, the team of researchers Susana Lima and Susana Valente questions the idea that prolactin, associated in women with the production of breast milk, is the justification for the variable period after ejaculation in which most men lose their sexual ability.
The research results also question putative treatments that are proposed to reduce the refractory period by reducing prolactin levels.
The researchers acknowledge that the hormone will play a role in male sexual behavior, but argue that “prolactin is highly unlikely to be the cause” of the refractory period.
This conclusion is aligned with the initial objective of the research, which was certainly “to investigate in more detail the biological mechanisms through which prolactin would be causing the refractive period”, says biologist and neuroscientist Susana Lima.
Scientific studies show that this hormone is released, either in men or mice used in the laboratory, at the time of ejaculation, which would make it a probable cause of the refractory period.
Elevated levels of prolactin in the body are also indicators of decreased sexual response, difficulty reaching orgasm, or ejaculatory dysfunction.
Although a direct link between the hormone and the post-ejaculation refractory period has never been proven, “this theory has been so well established that it appears in school textbooks and in the press,” says Susana Lima.
The first author of the study, biologist Susana Valente, says that the team used mice in their experiments because “the sequence of sexual behavior is very similar to that of man,” with prolactin levels increased during sexual activity in animals from laboratory.
Prolactin levels in rats were artificially increased prior to sexual activity and the researchers expected there to be an inhibition in the behavior of male mice, but this did not happen.
Also, the inhibition of prolactin release did not result in a faster recovery of post-ejaculatory sexual ability in the animals.
Susana Lima points out that there are studies that point to “the role of prolactin in the development of parental behavior” for men.
Furthermore, prolactin levels increase throughout the mating process in rats, whereas in males the hormone is only released at the time of ejaculation.
“There may be some differences in the role it plays in different species,” he admits, arguing that the research results put scientists “in a better position to advance this line of research and find out what really underlies this. physiological process “.
