Dopamine and Sex: What’s the Connection?

Wondering about the relationship between dopamine and sex? Here’s everything you need to know.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter involved in reward-seeking and decision-making behavior. It plays a role in nearly all facets of the sexual response cycle, including sexual desire, erections, and orgasms. When you have sex or do any other activity that brings you pleasure, your brain releases dopamine. During sex, dopamine continues to rise until ejaculation.

But what happens if your dopamine levels are low? Could it lead to low sex drive, erectile dysfunction (ED), or other sexual problems?

Keep reading to explore the relationship between sex and dopamine and how this neurotransmitter affects erectile function.

Nicknamed a “feel-good” chemical, dopamine is involved with the brain’s reward processes and pleasure center (also known as the mesolimbic pathway).

Dopamine is produced in various parts of the brain, including the substantia nigra, the ventral tegmental area, and the preoptic area of the hypothalamus. There are two main steps in dopamine production:

• First, an amino acid called tyrosine is converted into another amino acid known as L-dopa.

• Then, within the central nervous system, enzymes change L-dopa into dopamine.

When you do something that feels good — eat delicious food or engage in sexual behavior, for instance — it triggers the secretion of dopamine into the nucleus accumbens, striatum, and prefrontal cortex. As a result, you have an urge to repeat the action to feel that rush in your dopamine receptors again.

The dopamine system can also play a role in your mood, as well as a small part in your “fight-or-flight” response to stress. When you’re in a stressful or scary situation, both dopamine and its byproduct, norepinephrine, can relax or constrict blood vessels.

Dopamine also contributes to addiction, encouraging you to repeat patterns or behaviors that aren’t necessary for survival but result in pleasure. Think problematic pornography consumption or dependence to drugs like cocaine or amphetamine.

Yes, having sex leads to spikes in dopamine. But you might not be having sex in the first place if it weren’t for dopamine driving the whole process.

Keep scrolling to explore the neuroscience behind dopamine and sex, including how it affects sexual desire, erections, orgasm, and overall satisfaction.

Dopamine and Sexual Desire

Pharmacology studies show that dopamine increases arousal and goal-directed behaviors in response to reward anticipation. As the anticipation of the reward builds (the reward, in this case, being sexual pleasure), so do desire and motivation.

But what if you have an issue with dopamine dysregulation? In other words, what if you have a mood disorder or are taking a medication that affects how much dopamine your body releases?

In a 2012 study, researchers gave one group of men a dopamine-boosting drug and another group a dopamine-blocking drug to explore the role of the neurochemical in sexual arousal. The men were then shown sexual images.

When researchers observed their brain activity, the men with more dopamine had more activity in the reward center of the brain in response to the sexual images, even though they were unaware of the images. Men with less dopamine had less active reward centers.

Low Dopamine and Reduced Sex Drive

The findings of the 2012 study suggest that having high or low levels of baseline dopamine or taking a medication that increases or decreases dopamine might make the brain’s reward system more or less responsive to things that might be rewarding on a subconscious level.

This could potentially contribute to issues like hypersexuality or low sex drive.

There are interesting findings from a psycho-pharmacology standpoint. The researchers pointed out that dopamine-boosting drugs, like those used for Parkinson’s disease, may increase sexual preoccupation. Meanwhile, dopamine-blocking antipsychotic drugs for schizophrenia or other mood disorders may lower libido (sex drive).

Dopamine and Depression

Although depression correlates with low serotonin levels, studies show that low levels of dopamine can also contribute to this mood disorder. One symptom of depression is a lack of motivation and concentration — both of which dopamine is responsible for.

Dopamine and Erections

Now that you know dopamine is the “feel-good” pleasure chemical that drives sexual motivation, how does it play a role in erectile function? To answer that, we should quickly explain how erections work and why you get erections.

• While genital arousal might seem simple, there’s actually a whole process involving the nerves around your penis, the network of blood vessels, and your brain — which is where the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system (dopamine’s pathway) comes into play.

• Penile erections are a natural process that happens when you feel sexual arousal in response to physical or mental stimuli.

• Nerves in your penis release neurotransmitters that cause the smooth muscle of your blood vessels to relax, which widens the diameter of blood vessels and increases blood flow to the erectile tissue inside your penis.

• This increased blood flow is what gives your erection its size and firmness, allowing you to engage in a satisfying performance and achieve sexual satisfaction.

Dopamine is thought to be one of the key neurotransmitters involved in sexual functioning and erections.

Studies first performed on male rats have found that dopamine isn’t just involved with sexual motivation. It also triggers erections by acting on oxytocin neurons located in the hypothalamus — and possibly on the pro-erectile neurons within the spinal cord.

This dopamine release continues to rise within the nucleus accumbens until orgasm and ejaculation are reached.

Dopamine and Orgasms

You may think of orgasm and ejaculation as genital-specific processes, but the brain is a key player.

During orgasm, the ventral tegmental area is activated, leading to a peak secretion of dopamine. Meanwhile, the medial anterior hypothalamic region releases another feel-good chemical: oxytocin.

In the same way dopamine-boosting drugs can increase sexual desire, they can also facilitate orgasms.

On the other hand, dopamine blockers and serotonin boosters can inhibit orgasms. This may be why some psychiatry specialists prescribe drugs like bupropion (generic Wellbutrin®, a dopamine booster) alongside antidepressants known to cause sexual dysfunction.

Similar to how dopamine supports sexual motivation and orgasm, studies also show that D2 receptors (dopamine receptors) promote ejaculation.

After orgasm, during the refractory period, dopamine declines and the hormone prolactin is released to produce the feeling of satisfaction. Fun fact: Prolactin is even higher after sexual intercourse than after masturbation.

Erectile dysfunction — sometimes referred to as impotence — is a common sexual health condition among men. If you’re unable to get a firm enough erection or maintain an erection long enough for sexual activity, you might have ED.

Erectile dysfunction can happen for several reasons, from certain medications to psychological causes like depression and anxiety.

It makes sense, then, that medications or mental health conditions that cause dopamine imbalances may affect erectile function in the same way they can impact libido and orgasms.

Another common cause of erectile dysfunction is frequent pornography consumption, which may also be related to dopamine levels and sexual reward processes.

Watching porn frequently, as well as the novelty and amount of porn available, affects your brain’s reward system, triggering dopamine bursts.

The more internet pornography you watch, the more your brain associates it with sexual arousal. So when real-life sexual stimulation doesn’t match up with the porn videos you see online, you might experience so-called dopamine impotence.

Whether your ED is due to watching frequent pornography, depression, medication, or something else, there are ways to treat your condition.

If you think you’re dealing with a dopamine imbalance specifically, you may be wondering how to trigger dopamine in a man to reduce ED. We’ll go over a few options below.

Dopamine Agonist Medications and Supplements

Research has found that dopamine agonists — drugs that mimic dopamine function — can help with the treatment of sexual dysfunctions. One example of a dopamine agonist for treating low sex drive is pramipexole (Mirapex®).

A 2015 study also found that L-tyrosine supplementation — the amino acid that turns into dopamine — seemed to reverse the effect of neurological ED in mice, though the data is extremely limited. Further research is needed before labeling L-tyrosine as a treatment for erectile dysfunction.

Getting more tyrosine from certain foods — such as chicken, dairy products, avocados, bananas, and pumpkin seeds — could boost your dopamine levels.

Dopamine Reuptake Inhibitors

Dopamine reuptake inhibitor medications like bupropion are also often used to treat depression by preventing the brain from reabsorbing the chemical.

That said, there are several other erectile dysfunction medications that might serve you better.

A healthcare provider can help identify the cause of your ED and recommend a treatment plan for your symptoms and health condition.

This may include lifestyle changes, therapy, or medications like:

• Sildenafil (Viagra®)

• Tadalafil (Cialis®)

• Avanafil (Stendra®)

• Vardenafil (Levitra®)

Hims offers these ED medications online, following a virtual consultation with one of our licensed healthcare providers.

While some things are uncertain about the process of male sexual arousal, research seems to show a connection between sex and dopamine.

Remember:

• Dopamine is a neurotransmitter (naturally occurring brain chemical) your body produces when you do something that feels good. It communicates messages between neurons in your brain and the rest of your body and is associated with pleasurable reward and motivation.

• Dopamine has also been found to be part of the sexual response cycle. The neurotransmitter supports arousal, erections, and ejaculation.

• Dopamine dysregulation can lead to sexual issues. Too much dopamine could result in hypersexuality, while too little may lead to low libido, ED, or problems reaching orgasm.

Whether you’re dealing with ED, depression, or addiction, you should talk to a healthcare provider to figure out what’s going on. Numerous options are available to help, and the sooner you access them, the sooner you can reclaim the sex life you deserve.

Explore sexual health resources and mental health medications from Hims.