Literatus: Abandon and control

IRISH poet William Butler Yeats wrote: “The tragedy of sexual intercourse is the perpetual virginity of the soul.” If sexual abandon is dangerous to the “virginity of the soul,” then the Roman Catholic Church may be right in opposing the use of oral contraception (OC). A recent study published in this year’s issue of BMC Women’s Health noted that the use of OCs had been associated with greater sexual interest across all phases of a woman’s reproductive cycle.

Chrisalbeth Guillermo of the University of Nevada, School of Community Health Sciences (Las Vegas, Nevada, USA) led a team of five researchers that investigated the socio-sexual behavior changes among volunteer women in conjunction with their menstrual cycle.

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Guillermo and her team conversely observed that those who did not take OCs displayed no difference in their level of sexual interest.

The heightened “general attraction toward current or potential mates … and physical attraction,” Guillermo wrote, among those who used OCs appeared to be a result on the activity of progesterone, cortisol, and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) during the testing period. And/or, as she suggested, this could be due to the natural tendency of OC-using women to be sexually active.

This was particularly strong during the follicular phase, corresponding roughly to day seven of a 28-day cycle.

Progesterone (i.e. progestational steroidal ketone) is a very potent steroid hormone that sets the stage in the womb ready for implantation while affecting related changes in the vagina.

Cortisol restores balance after a period of stress. In a word, this hormone relaxes the female body.

DHEAS is a byproduct of DHEA metabolism, a degradation process that leads to an increased production of testosterone, a potent libido-enhancing hormone even among women.

It is the form of DHEAS found in the blood, and which does not vary in levels throughout the day. The compounded effect of these three substances may explain the elevated sexual interest among women in OC. The study appears to highlight the natural tendency for sexual abandon to result from artificial birth control. Or, should birth control be a result of a choice toward sexual abandon?

No one outside the person making the decision can really know for sure. Motives for an action can be as many as anyone can think.

And here’s another danger that Don Quixote author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra observed: “Once a woman parts with her virtue, she loses the esteem even of the man whose vows and tears won her to abandon it.”

That’s the insight of 16th century mind. If that is still true in our 21st century culture, be the judge.