FRISKY FRIDAY FACTS:  Increased Testosterone Makes Women and Men Pursue Physical Encounters Differently

Hormones affect our behaviors in all kinds of ways.  Testosterone makes both men and women want to engage in more frequent, physically intimate activity – but cultural or psychological influences influence them differently:  Men will chance more activities with others; while women will “play it safe.”

Researchers measured testosterone in saliva samples from nearly 4,000 adults and asked them about their lives.

They found that men, who have higher levels of the hormone, are more likely to have had more than one sexual partner, at the same time, in the last five years, and to have engaged in recent heterosexual intercourse.

In women, testosterone levels were significantly higher in those who had never experienced a same sex relationship, and who had reported solitary sexual activity (“self care”) more recently, and more frequently.

In short, testosterone makes one more likely to pursue physical intimacy, but in different ways.

Researchers say this difference, in how testosterone affects men and women, could be related to the “different meanings and motivations, which women and men attach to solitary or partnered sex.”

Check out more, here:  (EurekAlert!)

  • A study finds higher levels of testosterone in men is equated with having more than  one sexual partner at the same time, and having more sex, while for women, having a higher level of testosterone is associated with more frequent “self care”

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