Yes, really! For Valentine's Day last week me and my girlfriend took pharmaceutical grade exogenous Oxytocin from RUPharma in Moscow (quite literally from Russia with love!) and it made me bleed. I'll tell the story but first I'd like to explain why I thought it might be a good idea to supplement Oxytocin...
The enigmatic love molecule, Oxytocin is reputed as a sex hack to really heat things up in the bedroom.
But my research led me to believe that in this unromantic age of Tinder and hookup culture it’s much more useful as a biohack for meaningful monogamy.
The Orgasm Neurotransmitter
Oxytocin plays a major role in sexuality. Men and women release oxytocin during sexual intercourse and orgasm; in fact, it is responsible for orgasms. In men, the higher levels of oxytocin, the better quality of erections and ejaculation intensity. Women often experience higher levels of oxytocin during sex than men, especially if they’re lucky enough to have multiple orgasms.
A Sex Biohack?
All the guys reading this and at least some of the ladies are at this point asking...
Will it make sex better? Hotter? Longer? Wetter? Harder? Louder?
Unfortunately, the studies are inconclusive on this point. It’s difficult, if not impossible to accurately quantify the subjective quality and enjoyment of sex. In the studies Oxytocin doesn't seem to outperform a placebo.
This 2015, randomized, double-blind placebo controlled trial, conducted in Austria examined the effect of on-demand intranasal oxytocin on female sexual function and activity. The study had a duration of 22 weeks and the participants were 30 postmenopausal women with sexual dysfunction. The trial results showed that the administration of both oxytocin and placebo enhanced sexual function and symptoms of depression in women over time with no treatment, sequence or interaction effect.
In this case though, the Austrian study had a response, from those women’s intimate partners. The goal was to assess the sexual function, quality of life and depression in those men. It was an open prospective cohort study which again lasted for 22 weeks. Eventually, it was indicated that female treatment with either oxytocin or placebo for sexually dysfunctional women significantly improved male’s sexual quality of life and there was also a slight amelioration in the frequency of intercourse, arousal, desire, satisfaction.
So whether it was the Oxytocin or just the placebo effect, it made everyone happier.
If you’re looking for something to spice up your sex life or give your woman multiple screaming orgasms that will wake up the neighbors supplementing Oxytocin is not guaranteed to do that.
So should you and your partner supplement Oxytocin?
Many Nootropics or smart drugs have an episodic effect (you take them and feel something, fast) and some have a cumulative effect (it has an effect over time) but supplementing Oxytocin is kind of unique in that it creates an associative effect, here’s what that means...
If you supplement Oxytocin you’ll become more closely bonded to whomever or whatever you’re doing and it’s half life in your system is short, less than a couple hours.
So you wouldn’t really want to dose Oxytocin before commuting to work, cleaning your house or going to do jury duty. You would want to dose it if you knew you were going to be spending some quality time with someone important.
So dosing some Oxytocin before a romantic evening, weekend getaway or honeymoon would likely instill greater lasting desire.
Olfactory biohack: If you wanted to potentiate this effect, I would try to add a distinctive scent to the time together. Our olfactory memory strongly associates scents and smells to emotions and feelings. So maybe wear some special cologne or perfume or rent an Airbnb with a wood burning fireplace.
Biohacking Gone Wrong!
Back to my story, we had a fun night of salsa dancing planned so me and my girlfriend decided to take one milliliter each of liquid Oxytocin. The Oxytocin comes in these one milliliter glass ampules.
I effortlessly popped the glass top off her ampule and she downed it, making a little bit of a funny face at the hormone's odd taste but when I tried to open mine the little bottle actually shattered in my hand, cutting my hand ever so slightly! I immediately went to clean, wash and sanitize my hand thoroughly.
It didn't hurt much but it was quite surprising! Lesson learned about glass ampules.
Not easily dissuaded from my Valentine's Day biohacking experiment, I opened another glass ampule very slowly using a wet towelette and dosed it sublingually. The taste was really not very remarkable or bad compared with some things I've tried.
We chased the Oxytocin with a few capsules of N-Acetyl Cysteine since we wanted to enjoy some cocktails at the salsa club, and NAC does of a pretty good job of hacking hangovers if taken before a night out.
Honestly, there was no notable experiential effects on our mood or quality, quantity or duration of sex or orgasm that night - we both have a pretty healthy libido so I don't think Oxytocin improved things from baseline much for us.
What does consistently does improve my sex life is...
Tongkat Ali
This is a testosterone promoting herb that makes you hornier, improving libido and quality of erections.
- If it's been like a week or longer since I orgasmed I'll pass on Tongkat as I'll be more likely to come in hurry.
- If my interim in between orgasms is less than 4 days or if I've had more than one alcoholic beverage I'll take Tongkat.
- It's part of my date night stack, I'll usually take it a few hours before having sex even though it seems to still have an effect in as little as 30 minutes.
- If you're a big fan of morning sex 600 milligrams of Tongkat will be your breakfast of champions!
Horny Goat Weed
Horny goat weed is probably the most infamous male libido and sexual performance performance enhancer.
- You can take it daily and you'll get a noticeable boost in testosterone that makes you a bit more randy (and distracted by every skirt that passes!)
- Although I prefer to use it episodically, about 30 minutes before I'm having sex.
- It improves sensation (sex feels better), quality of erections and stamina - to be more explicit; semen retention, I'm able to hold back from ejaculating and pleasure my lady a while longer.
Ashwaghanda
Seems to have a nice synergy with Horny Goat Weed and is a naturally relaxing herb that belongs in your date night stack, because it takes the edge off (similar to booze or Phenibut) and puts you in a talkative, social mood.
Tantric Semen Retention techniques
These are a combination of (mostly breathing) methods for preventing ejaculation, prolonging sex or full body orgasm.
If you're an otherwise healthy guy looking to optimize sexual hedonism, I would recommend those four sex biohacks BEFORE I would taking exogenous Oxytocin, but hey it was worth trying...
