What is the sexual response cycle and how can it impact my fertility?

It’s LESSON time! I love unpacking how things work and we can’t forget about the physiology of baby making. This micro lesson will help you understand if things are functioning as they should, or maybe they aren't functioning so well....giving you an area to focus on. So let’s look at what happens when we are trying to create life!

The Sexual Response Cycle

The Sexual Response Cycle is a series of emotional and physical changes that happen when a person becomes sexually aroused and participates in sexually stimulating activities whether solo or with another.

Knowing how your body responds during each phase of this cycle can enhance your relationship and help you pinpoint the cause of any dysfunction in your fertility journey.

The 4 Phases

According to some fancy researchers, there are 4 phases

1 - Excitement, Arousal, and Desire

2 - Plateau, but I'm calling it brink

3 - O r g a s m

4 - Resolution

Excitement, Arousal, and Desire

🔥Muscle tension increases.

🔥Heart rate quickens and breathing gets faster.

🔥Skin may become flushed (blotches of redness may appear on the chest and back).

🔥Nipples become hardened or erect.

🔥Blood flow to the genitals increases

🔥Lubrication may begin.

🔥Breasts may become fuller

🔥Testicles swell

Brink

During the Brink phase, all of the feelings, sensations, and physiology of phase one intensify into this concept of the "brink". They call it Plateau but Brink makes way more sense to me.

It's that building stage of more intense excitement, which extends to the brink of orgasm that we hope will, but may not always occur.

Orgasm

The orgasm is the climax or peak or apex of the seggual response. In this phase, the tension that builds during the seggual activity is released in a series of muscle spasms, especially in the groin area in rhythm, and it sends a wave of pleasurable feeling through the body. This is the shortest phase of all and generally, lasts only for a few seconds.

🔥Involuntary muscle contractions

🔥The body releases a hormone called endorphinS

🔥Blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing are at their highest rates with a rapid intake of oxygen.

🔥A sudden forceful release of sexual tension can be experienced.

🔥muscles of the vagina contracts

🔥the womb also starts rhythmic contractions.

🔥increased sensitivity

🔥e j a c u l a t i o n

🔥full body flush

Now, everyone's turn ons are different but what's really key here is that it's never just one thing that ignites the cycle.

Resolution

Resolution is the final phase where oxytocin and euphoria fades and body functions slowly return to a normal level of functioning. Swelled and erected body parts return to their previous state and color. This phase occurs at the end of the sexual response cycle whether you have an o r g a s m or not.

Based on research, we know that the sexual response cycle phases are also influenced by our memories, fantasies, emotions, and sensual stimulation. Sex is all about indulging all of our senses in a holistic way.

We move through the phases starting with excitement and arousal to the resolution phase where we cool off, perhaps post o r g a s m and resume our daily life.

Have fun thinking about these phases and maybe some areas that you’d like to pay extra attention to so you are really in the mood for baby making!

Did you learn anything new? Share it with me in the comments 👇