Chemicals and hormones are everywhere in your body. These tell your body what to do and when to do them. More precisely chemicals control the biochemistry of your body. We realized this and educated ourselves quite a few decades ago. We learned various facts throughout the years like how adrenaline helps us with our fight or flight response by heightening our awareness and how insulin regulates our metabolic system in school.

However, one similar thing that we usually forget to get educated on is how these chemicals and hormones work in your body during sex and how it impacts the sex itself.

What exactly goes on inside your body while you are having sex? What chemicals are involved in making you feel the way you do, both mentally and physically? What chemicals get you horny and help you prepare for the following? Today we will be going through all those very detailed questions and trying to learn more about our bodies.

What Happens to Your Body During Sex?

Some may argue that sex is just mother nature’s cheat code to subconsciously enable us to reproduce and make more babies to keep the species alive but there’s a lot more there than just those simple sets of words. And for those indulging in the BDSM lifestyle, it is an entirely different experience that is much more enhanced.

With tools like tens unit and other BDSM toys, these chemicals are released more efficiently thus enhancing pleasure. Sex is a very crucial moment for our bodies. During consensual sex, our body releases a concoction of chemicals that help us get aroused and find pleasure in the most unexpected things.

Our body enhances pleasure as we feel it and arousal by inducing chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, adrenaline, and additionally vasopressin for men. BDSM sex elevates this brew of chemicals and pushes your boundaries.

Top Three Chemicals that Make Sex so Pleasurable

1. Endorphins 

Endorphins are natural painkillers. Luckily, there is an abundance of endorphins in our bodies during sex. And during bondage or acts including the masochism and sadism dynamic, it has been proven that bodies tend to have boosted levels of endorphins. Endorphins are feel-good hormones that also increase your natural pain tolerance. These feel-good hormones are released in our bodies during sex, exercise, and surprisingly pain. This benefits us in more than one way. Endorphins have potent mood-boosting and stress-relieving properties. 

These properties coupled with BDSM and the usage of toys BDSM toys like ball gag accessories and butt plugs can have an even stronger and unique effect on your body. Practitioners also experience the production of natural morphine in their bodies with an abundance of endorphins. With the presence of morphine in your blood, you tend to have a higher pain tolerance which explains how masochists can still derive pleasure from inflicted pain. BDSM practitioners have a more enhanced form of pleasure and increased tolerance for pain as a result of these pain-reducing endorphins altering your body chemistry.

2. Adrenaline

Adrenaline also known as Epinephrine is a chemical produced by your adrenal gland when you are excited. This hormone can be secreted in many dramatically different situations like, skydiving, escaping a fatal accident, a near-death experience, or when you are strongly attracted to someone sexually. This big release of adrenaline can enhance your sexual experience by multiple folds, especially during dominant and submissive BDSM acts. 

Adrenaline is a unique hormone as it suppresses some of your body’s functions while simultaneously heightening other functions and sensations. Adrenaline is crucial to your body’s fight or flight response and prepares your body for some sort of action. With adrenaline acting as a shock-relieving hormone, your body tends to go through some exceptional changes like increased tolerance of pain, a significant increase in strength, and boosted performance.

3. Oxytocin

Oxytocin is often known as the female hormone as women tend to have a higher level of this hormone in their bodies in comparison to men. The reason behind the increased presence of oxytocin in women is the hormone’s fundamental nature which is associated with sex, childbirth, and lactation. However, in recent studies, it has been discovered that men too experience a production of oxytocin during ejaculation. This hormone and neurotransmitter is produced in the hypothalamus which is a crucial part of the brain. 

Although a newer discovery, oxytocin levels have been found to increase during sexual activity, so it’s safe to say sexual arousal can stimulate the production of oxytocin in your body. Oxytocin impacts your body in a fascinating way by changing your social and sexual behavior and mannerisms. 

There’s also a significant impact on your psychological state, oxytocin helps in stabilizing psychological health and acts as a stress reliever. Oxytocin plays one of the most important roles in a complex neurochemical web by allowing the body to adapt and respond to highly emotive scenarios, often nicknamed “the love hormone”.

BDSM and Chemistry Hormones

BDSM has long been linked with rapid and temporary hormonal changes in the human body. 

Practices related to bondage have proved to be of noticeable benefit in regard to chemicals released in your body. BDSM practitioners are also likely to suffer less from depression, anxiety, and other mental health-related issues. Submissive partners show an increased level of cortisol in their bodies along with an increase in testosterone production. 

BDSM is often known to help participants slip into an almost ritual-like altered state of consciousness often dubbed as “subspace”.  This is a state in which the submissive reaches a state of zen or a trance. This state is triggered by the flooding of our brain with various sex hormones that make us feel enhanced pleasure. These chemicals can often accompany different aspects of bondage like edgeplay, sensory deprivation, and usage of safe words.

Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs)

Q1. Why do I feel so high after sex?

Your brain’s reward pathways in the limbic system are flooded with happy hormones like dopamine when you orgasm. This can make your brain feel a similar sensation to a heroin-induced high. Apart from dopamine various other chemicals are released in your body during sex that can enhance your sensations and put you in a stress-free state.

Q2. How does BDSM affect my hormones?

According to a few studies done recently, BDSM practices can impact your and your partner’s hormones. It has been found that the submissive partner’s cortisol levels have a significant increase along with a surprisingly increased level of testosterone. 

Q3. Are there any benefits to practicing BDSM? 

Practicing BDSM can have multiple benefits for all participants. These practices have been linked with reduced mental stress, improved mental health, better intrapersonal relationships, etc. This also means there is a reduced risk of depression and other mental health-related issues in any BDSM relationship. You can also use bondage-specific toys like BDSM handcuffs and collars to better the experience.

Bottom Line

BDSM or the sadomasochist lifestyle can be a little overwhelming to some people but it has an abundance of benefits ranging from psychological to physiological. These benefits are received from numerous chemicals released in your body during and after sex. Using bondage toys and tools like nipple clamps, ropes, paddles, etc., can also have a huge impact on your hormonal stats as the sensations vary for each toy. 

Interestingly, certain chemicals like adrenaline help you with arousal and help prepare your body for sex, on the other hand chemicals like oxytocin which also acts as a neurotransmitter help you reach a zen state during orgasm. These chemicals have different properties like pain reduction, stress reduction, better mental health, and heightened senses. Sex, in general, has similar beneficial properties, but the freakier the sex, the better it is in every aspect.