Thermal cameras undercut the belief that women take longer to become aroused
A common assumption holds that women need far more time than men to become aroused. Researchers at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal tested it with thermal imaging, tracking temperature change as volunteers watched explicit films. On average both sexes reached peak arousal in roughly the same time, about 10 minutes.
Sexual arousal covers the bodily and mental changes that prepare someone for sex or follow exposure to sexual stimuli. It unfolds in stages and need not lead to any sexual activity at all. Touch, hormone fluctuations, images, conversation, reading, scent, music or a particular setting can all set it off, and what works differs between people and from one day to the next. Researchers group stimuli by sense: touch, sight and smell take the lead, with sound usually playing a supporting role.
Humans are unusual among animals in having no mating season; both sexes can be aroused at any time of year. The most visible physical sign is increased blood flow to the genitals in both sexes, and heart rate, blood pressure and breathing all climb as arousal builds. Some people develop a flush across the chest and upper body. Pupils also widen involuntarily, though by how much varies from person to person.
Body and mind do not always agree. Scientists call this arousal non-concordance: physical signs can appear without any felt desire, as during sleep, and a feeling of arousal can occur without the usual physical response. Studies comparing women's bodily responses with how aroused they say they feel find the correlation is sometimes high and sometimes surprisingly low. Some men past their mid-forties likewise report that arousal does not always bring the expected physical change.
After climax, men typically pass through a refractory period of relaxation and reduced interest, attributed to the hormones oxytocin and prolactin; it can be almost absent in young men and last hours or days in older ones. At either extreme, arousal can signal a problem. A persistent inability to become aroused in situations that normally produce it may reflect a disorder, with causes ranging from depression and drugs to other medical conditions, while persistent genital arousal disorder produces spontaneous, unwanted arousal.
Source: Sexual arousal
