According to a new study, semen affect a woman’s genes and her behavior. Known as “seminal signaling,” the phenomenon is common among animals, so the scientific thinking is that perhaps it can be the case in humans, too. It wouldn’t be the first time semen has interfered with a woman’s body, and I’m not talking about pregnancy.
The researchers at the University of East Anglia found that male fruit flies are more likely to produce increased protein in their semen when faced with a rival fruit fly. One of those proteins is what is known as a “master regulator,” and something to which when a female fruit fly is exposed, her gene expression (the process of genes becoming activated in order to produce the substantial amount of protein so a body can function properly) is altered.
The findings are just further proof that semen can affect women in both physical and psychological ways.
Granted, comparing fruit flies to human beings is a huge leap, but as I said above, this isn’t the first study to find that semen can have a major effect on a woman, should she and her partner opt out of condoms. Here are five other ways semen affects you, ladies.
1. It Helps Fight Depression And Anxiety
A 2012 study found that semen has the perfect combination of hormones that make for less depressed and anxious women. The research found that seminal fluid contains what scientists call “mood-elevating compounds,” including such important hormones like oxytocin, endorphins, and serotonin. When the semen is absorbed through the vaginal walls, it showed less depressive symptoms in the women in a controlled study.
2. It Can Cure Morning Sickness
One of the major down sides to pregnancy in the first trimester is that nightmarish morning sickness. Although not all women experience it, for those who do they’ll attest to the fact that it sucks. But according to a 2012 study, the best way to cure that morning sickness is to ingest semen. No joke.
Psychologist, Gordon Gallup, believes that morning sickness is attributed to the semen that’s in a woman's body due to her pregnancy, so her body rejects it by making her throw-up. But if she ingests the semen of the man who got her pregnant, it will balance things out as she basically builds up a tolerance for the semen that’s already in her body by giving oral and swallowing.
3. It Aids In Sleep
While it may seem like you want to sleep after sex because you had one hell of a workout, according to various studies that sleepiness has to do with the levels of melatonin in semen. Research has found that melatonin is a sleep-inducing agent that can help you fall asleep and stay asleep, and is one of the major ingredients in sleeping aids that you’ll find at the pharmacy.
4. It Triggers Ovulation
A study by the University of Saskatchewan found that semen has a protein in it that signals the brain that it’s time to ovulate. The hormones can confuse a woman’s cycle and her ovaries can release an egg simply because the semen pretty much said so. Semen is so controlling.
5. It Makes You Smarter
According to the same 2012 study that said semen makes women happier, semen also makes women smarter. The research done by the State University of New York found that women who practice unprotected sex regularly, therefore having more seminal plasma in their bodies, scored higher on cognitive tests and were able to concentrate better.
Want more of Bustle's Sex and Relationships coverage? Check out our new podcast, I Want It That Way, which delves into the difficult and downright dirty parts of a relationship, and find more on our Soundcloud page.
