[FONT=Verdana,Geneva, Arial, sans-serif]While I was researching the potential side effects of a vasectomy, I did some reading on the components that make up a man's seminal fluid and was directed to a peer-reviewed study with this title: "Does semen have antidepressant properties?"
Quote(s) from the discussion:
"Females who had sex without condoms, and therefore would be more likely to have semen in their reproductive tract, evidenced significantly fewer depressive symptoms than those who used condoms."
Further, "consistent with the hypothesis that there may be something about semen that antagonzies depression, females who were having sex without condoms also showed lower depression scores than those who were abstaining from sex altogether. The fact that depression scores among females who were not having sex did not differ from those who were using condoms demonstrates that it is not sexual activity per se that antagonizes depression."
Also, the authors comment that there were no differences between the depression scores of females using oral contraceptives and those that were not--either between or within categories--suggesting that oral contraceptives have little influence on depression.
Of course, females that never use condoms could just have fewer depressive symptoms simply because they were having sex more or because they were in a committed relationship.
However, the lead author has replicated these findings with an additional 700 women and has plans to study whether or not "semen withdrawl" places women at an "increased risk for depression when they are premenstrual, menopausal, or have just given birth, as many women abstain from sex during these periods."
Talk about semen research!
Reference:
[/FONT] Gordon, G., Jr., R. L. Burch, and S. M. Platek. 2002. Does semen have antidepressant properties? Archives of Sexual Behavior 31:289-293.
Further reading:
Ney, P. G. 1986. The intravaginal absorption of male generated hormones and their possible effect on female behavior. Medical Hypotheses 20:221-231.
