# How does ejaculation work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [January 6, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-ejaculation-work/480103 "2009-01-06T16:49:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-ejaculation-work/480103/21 "2009-01-08T21:04:34Z")
No need to apologise. Round here we just take people as they come. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-ejaculation-work/480103/22 "2009-01-08T23:07:35Z")
A good article, as far as it goes. But it doesn’t mention at least one potentially important physiological factor: the hormone oxytocin. Now, granted, this falls in one of the “head-scratching” areas, since about the only things we know about the action of oxytocin during sex is that 1) it’s elevated during arousal, and 2) its level may or may not increase during orgasm (conflicting studies, etc.) However, it’s certainly a reasonable hypothesis that, since oxytocin is intimately involved in stimulating the contraction of smooth muscles, it might have an important role in initiating orgasm in both men and women. And it’s produced by the pituitary, which may mean that the brain must be involved, not necessarily electrically, but chemically. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-ejaculation-work/480103/23 "2009-01-08T23:18:11Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > A good article, as far as it goes. But it doesn’t mention at least one potentially important physiological factor: the hormone oxytocin. Now, granted, this falls in one of the “head-scratching” areas, since about the only things we know about the action of oxytocin during sex is that 1) it’s elevated during arousal, and 2) its level may or may not increase during orgasm (conflicting studies, etc.) Bingo. I had to go with the existing research and the analyses thereof because I don’t have the equipment to monitor oxytocin levels during ejaculation (and I really only have myself as a subject, even if I had the equipment). Moreover, we’re not talking about what causes orgasm, but what causes ejaculation. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-ejaculation-work/480103/24 "2009-01-11T23:52:56Z")
Does the maximum pleasure point coincide with the flow of the semen? In my experience, the peak is just after the orgasm begins. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-ejaculation-work/480103/25 "2009-01-12T00:14:37Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Does the maximum pleasure point coincide with the flow of the semen? In my experience, the peak is just after the orgasm begins. Komisaruk talks a bit about this in his book: [The Science of Orgasm - Barry R. Komisaruk, Carlos Beyer-Flores, Beverly Whipple - Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=7rfLcoQ2koQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=science+of+orgasm&ei=_IpqSf2JO5HaMY25ncoE&client=firefox-a#PPA28,M1) ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_Astronaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bad\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-ejaculation-work/480103/26 "2009-01-14T20:39:30Z")
[QUOTE=Gfactor (in the staff report)] Brain imaging studies haven’t turned up a single area of the brain that seems to be at work during ejaculation [/QUOTE] So the brain is completely shut down? I guess we really can think with our “other brains” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-ejaculation-work/480103/27 "2009-01-14T20:41:03Z")
> [@Bad\_Astronaut](#): > > So the brain is completely shut down? I guess we really can think with our “other brains” 🙂 This is probably due to all of the required thinking about baseball in the “not yet” phase. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-ejaculation-work/480103/28 "2009-01-15T04:11:41Z")
> [@Bad\_Astronaut](#): > > So the brain is completely shut down? I guess we really can think with our “other brains” 🙂 Happens all the time in Bangkok’s bars. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![svnah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@svnah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svnah)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-ejaculation-work/480103/29 "2009-01-16T13:36:05Z")
i think it’s more about what triggers are the source for stimulation and not so much the how - some are more prone to be stimulated by visual, others audible, …some by vibration, others by friction… and so on and so on. (an individual who is not stimulated by vibration has no care for a vibrator device, while another individual may be stimulated to climax in under a minute who is sensitive to vibrations.) the problem is that trying to measure if a rat can be jacked off by an electric shock up his butt really isn’t a quantifying test for what causes a human male to be stimulated to full orgasm. so how does one quantifyingly measure the trigger response to orgasm? level of sensory stimulus comparable to the pleasure triggers of the test subject in question. plain and simple - yet very broad - it’s sensory overload per individual triggers. …although, i greatly agree with the lumbar neuron cluster, and i think it will prove to be at the root of sensory overload resulting in climax - i know i get all kinds of aroused at my lower back being gently caressed. (btw, u weren’t thinking clearly about mental suppression, which can even slow parasympathetic response or dampen a reflex reaction, so it’s a no brainer that one can slow down climax by thinking about something else, like baseball or work) and fyi, i’m not a guy, i’m a female. is it any wonder we girls know what is needed to get u guys off better than ya’ll do? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-ejaculation-work/480103.md?page=1)