Sexual health, in our individual health spectrum, is also critical for the “social and economic development of communities and countries. The Latin word for pleasure—voluptas—refers back to the Roman goddess Voluptas. (Maybe you recognize her as Hedone, as she is known in the earlier Greek mythology.) Voluptas is the daughter of Eros, the goddess of love, and Psyche, the goddess of the soul. What a pairing!
So, love plus soul equals pleasure. Sounds about right, right? Pleasure, after all, has been around since the beginning of human times. As long as we have been able to feel, we have been able to feel love, and of course, pleasure.
But, why is pleasure important? Or, to put it another way, what makes pleasure special and powerful to experience? Our bodies release the monoamine neurotransmitter dopamine, part of our brain’s reward system, when we feel pleasure. Among daily stimulants for dopamine are pleasurable reward and motivation, and sleep and arousal. Our pleasure center does not discriminate! Whether we cuddle, eat well, or have an orgasm, dopamine gets released. It signals we are feeling voluptas, at its core.
Moreover, we undergo a chemical motivation to seek more of what has given us that sensation. Everybody deserves to feel good, and be supported in feeling good in a way that benefits ourselves and others. When we talk about living healthily as women, health is all-encompassing. How the elements of our lives come together impact how ‘healthy’ we feel overall.
And, the healthier we are, the more we can maximize our opportunities to engage and feel pleasure. Sexual health, in our individual health spectrum, is also critical for the “social and economic development of communities and countries.”
From a scientific perspective, pleasure is important to look at. While one can feel ready for pleasurable experience, aging and physical health circumstances can affect what is needed for it to happen. We know women have health needs specific to women and diseases and conditions affect us differently than they do men. Women sharing their health stories is crucial. Our stories can inform others and guide awareness of what women and our bodies go through.
Women have well-studied, and therefore predictable, hormonal changes during perimenopausal, menopausal, and post-menopausal life phases. Women’s experiences in these times range from vaginal and vulvar discomfort to declinations in skin and joint health, to mood fluctuations and changes to our gut health. At FemmePharma, we believe in the priority of women’s pleasure—women’s comfort—at every stage of their journeying and sexual health adventuring.
Next Steps
Continually giving our bodies what they need means giving ourselves potential to thrive in our day-to-day and long term living. Pleasure is arguably key to our survival. Morten Kringelbach, a University of Oxford neuroscience professor and director of the Center for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, weighs in. He equates our experience of pleasure as a dance of “wanting, liking, and satiety,” pointing out we need “different pleasures at different times.”
Understanding pleasure this way—as key in our development and to our survival—means figuring out how to keep pleasure accessible. In other words, as we support each other towards a healthful community, safeguarding experiences of pleasure for everyone who wants them is important.
As we are learning, our ability to access pleasure depends on how healthy we are individually and collectively. Part of looking after our sexual health means taking care of our physical bodies. Some examples are testing for sexually transmitted diseases and assessing our sexual organ heath, alongside general body check-ups. It includes asking ourselves about whether we are having healthy sex lives, and defining what healthy looks like for us. If we want to be having sex, then plainly put: is the sex we are having making us feel good?
These investigations of self-caring and loving have no deadline. We are learning that our sexual health is fundamental to the quality of our overall health. Just as we drink water when we are thirsty—or may meditate when we are stressed, also known to release dopamine!—we need the products, knowledge, and support to engage ourselves sexually, and otherwise, in ways that give us pleasure.
Pleasure, our timeless friend, will appreciate our efforts—and do her best to respond back.