Why do men lose interest in the sexual activities or anything arousal in general extremely quickly after having an orgasm? How does function of being horny work? How are genitals connected to our decision making capabilities? Why sexual release can change things this fast and this drastically?
It would be funny if I find out I am the only one,
but I assume I am not since all the gags and posts about “post nut clarity” or finding the “content” you are watching becoming unbearable right after you come.
In: 201
There is no evolutionary advantage to being horny after you ejaculate. The seed has been spread. That was the goal. Job is done.
Men have a refractory period where it’s physiologically impossible for a man to have another orgasm.
The length of this period can last from minutes to days.
There’s an [article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refractory_period_(sex)) on wikipedia that explains more.
As regards to post-nut clarity, when aroused, certain chemicals drive men (and women) to have sex. These chemicals can impair decision making.
It’s kind of like asking why you lose your appetite for food right after gorging at a buffet.
There’s a drive to eat and a drive to mate, both are evolved survival instincts. After being fully satisfied, the urge temporarily goes away.
Your body is basically saying “Hooray, you’ve now mated, good job! Now go do something else useful, your mate is already inseminated so doing some hunting or gathering would be more useful.” And then by the next day your body is like “well you don’t currently have a kid in your lap so we should probably mate again just to make sure” aka the horniness returns.
It’s really a lot like food appetite and the drive to eat. Right after a huge meal your body’s like “nice job, we’re all full of nutrients and energy to meet our needs! Now go do something else useful with all this fuel”. And then later, when you’re *not* full of fuel, hunger returns.
A refractory period would increase the likelihood of mating with a different partner. If you could continually have sex without stopping you would have no reason to find a different partner. If there’s a period of zero interest in sex, you will go somewhere else and, when the urge strikes again, someone else will probably be more convenient than your previous partner.
Because the orgasm is the end goal. It’s like that with just about every animal on earth, there’s no point in being horny if the goal was accomplished, and for some people, depending on how big of a load and how long it’s been since the last one, it may physically hurt to continue
When men ejaculate they produce hormones similar to female pregnancy in some aspects. Mostly prolactin. This kills the sex deive and enforces an evolutionary “recovery period.” Its purely chemical in most cases.
I’m not sure it’s entirely exclusive to men, but anybody who ever spent way too much time or effort to achieve an orgasm (like surfing internet porn until 3 am the morning before a test, or engaging in some sort of lunchtime sexual behavior that bled into 5th period) understands that this is a universal “WTF did I just do” feeling. And it is accompanied by an assortment of physical and emotional responses.
Sadly, poor understanding of this phenomenon can lead to relationship issues (especially if you really are an SOB after you get yours).
From an evolutionary standpoint, I’m always reminded of “Quest for Fire.” One successful minute behind a female by the riverside might propagate your genes. Two unsuccessful minutes might end your specific genetic line forever.
I’m pretty sure it took a variety of cultural and biological evolutionary behaviors to overcome the desire to run before the next guy arrives.
I remember hearing a theory that the loss of interest is tied to survival. For example, When a male encroaches on another more dangerous males mates the “post-nut clarity” helps by getting the heck out before their caught.
It could also encourage maters to consume less calories, by putting a hard stop after doing what needs to be done ensure nothing is wasted.
Honestly, when you logic it down, it makes sense that this phenomena occurs in males. Those who have this were more likely to survive, and thrive, on this wonderful hell hole of a planet.
There’s an evolutionarily selected thing called a refractory period, which is a time interval where men can’t physically have orgasms after the initial orgasm. Why the the case?
Two things to think about (both not ELI5):
1. Orgasms are absolutely critical to sex (for men). They are a build up of excitement / muscle tension that drives sudden release tied to massive convulsions of the pelvic region and for males, ejaculation of sperm into a vagina. It’s really hard to have ejaculation without orgasm / it’s a neurological disorder.
2. The human penis (for those redditors who haven’t seen one before) looks like a pole with a fatter tip at the end called a glans. It turns out the penis can scoop out sperm that already exists in a vagina.
So why the refractory period? The refractory period improves the likelihood of fertilization. For one thing: it gives some time for the sperm inside the women to propel themselves up the uterus to a unfertilized egg. Imagine trying to swim while addition thrusts/motions are going on – very unproductive. The refractory period creates this calm/tiredness that allows it to move. Secondly, by no thrusting, your glans won’t extract the semen it’s already ejaculated. It’s thought the glans was evolved as a competition strategy to remove sperm from competing males, at a time historically when multiple males would gang up on a female and the penis shape helped with improving sexual competition.
Disclaimer: this penis trait is NOT a contraceptive method. The penis shape isn’t designed to remove all sperm; all you need is to remove enough sperm so that when you ejaculate, you can outcompete the prior ejaculee. For fertilization, all it takes is 1 sperm to win.
I don’t think the effects of post nut clarity and post nut remorse are well understood by medical science but I can say there are exceptions. Some times you can just keep going after a short break. More specifically though there’s a very strict time window which is neither exactly after nor too long after ejaculation in which if you pick up your dick again and start doing whatever with it you can get hard and orgasm a few minutes after your first orgasm. However this usually doesn’t happen because this window is very short and you’re usually still cleaning up/peeing. But it can be done.
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