Life

This Is What Your Body Is Doing During Sex

When Salt-N-Pepa famously sang the catchy line "let's talk about sex" in their 1991 hit song "Lets Talk About Sex," they were probably operating under the assumption that there wouldn't actually be much talking at all because, at least according to the Buzzfeed video about what happens to your body during sex, "when that special someone looks at you with intent and desire" there's nothing to be done but to jump into bed, rip off the clothes of everyone involved, and indulge the primal desires of your body — a process in which there is a minimal amount of talking required.

Though sex and the processes involved in it are different for everyone, the general framework of of the actions involved can be boiled down to the sexual response cycle. The sexual response cycle itself has four stages: excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution, all of which rely on hormones like serotonin, adrenaline, dopamine, norepinephrine, and oxytocin. As these hormones are released one after another, the people having sex get both closer to orgasm and, according to some research, emotionally closer as well. When orgasm has been reached, contractions and swellings of genitalia subside and then, obviously, you just wait it out until everyone is ready to go again.

Watch more about the four phases of the sexual response cycle and what your body is like on sex:

Images: Buzzfeed