How is Pleasure Related to Women’s Health?
I was wearing a dress I really liked, and it was a good hair day (even if I wasn’t going anywhere that day, and no one would notice… such is the ruthless rule of womanhood). So I was already in a good mood.
But when I took a bite of that brownie… I FELT it. I felt it in my entire body. It was just soooo good.
It was as if the chocolate activated something on my tongue that activated something in my body that resonated all the way to my toes.
Do you know what kind of pleasure I’m talking about?
The one you feel when you eat delicious food, when you were comfortable clothes, when you see a beautiful view, when you hear a beautiful song…
THAT kind of pleasure has the potential to balance your hormones.
Let’s talk about how.
What are pleasure nerve fibers?
Did you know that you have more than 10 000 nerve fibers meant for pleasure in your body? (If you’ve ever heard that women have 8 000 of these pleasure nerves, Dr. Blair Peters did a more robust study in 2022 and found more than 10 000, with potential for more).
That’s a lot of nerves.
But why does it matter?
Nerve fibers are long, threadlike extensions of neurons that transmit electrical impulses throughout the body, acting as communication lines between the brain, spinal cord, and body parts.
They are basically pleasure pathways, for the whole body to feel and respond to signals of pleasure.
They are connected to the clitoris, run alongside your spine and into your body, all the way to your brain. They’re literally everywhere!
And their only purpose is to send signals of pleasure to the different parts of your body.
They can be activated in many different ways - clitoris stimulation is one of them (since all of these nerves are indeed connected to it), but it’s definitely not limited to that.
As they are everywhere in your body, including your brain, things that awaken them can be felt throughout the whole body, including your thoughts!
It’s a kind of activation that isn’t necessarily sexual, but is still deeply rooted in the sense. For some, it feels sensual, sometimes even erotic, without necessarily being sexual. It is a profound pleasure of the senses.
Things that we can feel, touch, see, smell, hear, taste.
In short, pleasure nerve fibers are pleasure pathways, connected to your clitoris, that travel throughout your entire body, and can be activated through multiple ways, including thoughts. We feel them being activated when we feel pleasure in our senses/body.
What does pleasure do to the body?
What happens once these nerves are being activated?
That’s when the magic start to happen.
These pleasure nerves demand that your body release oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine, while reducing the production of cortisol.
And that triggers many responses from the body:
The nervous system moves from a stress response to a rest response, because it doesn’t believe it is in danger if it feels pleasure.
This leads to lower inflammation, blood pressure, and heart rate.
In a rest response, the body is able to better digest, make immune system scans, and put some energy on the health of your skin, bones and hair.
The body also produces less estrogens in that case, reducing the risks of estrogen dominance.
As pleasure rises, pain lowers, becoming a natural pain-killer (to some extend, of course), and in a lot of cases reduces menstrual cramps.
The mood is regulated, feelings of connection possible, and feelings of joy enhanced.
All of that, just by integrating more pleasure into our daily life. In the repetition of these things in your body, your overall wellbeing is significantly improved, and your hormonal health much more balanced.
What about orgasms?
When you get familiar with your own pleasure, the activation of your pleasure nerves become easier and easier.
Your body starts to recognize its own patterns of pleasure, and gets used to feeling it more often.
That makes orgasms easier and more accessible, and these also come with their plethora of health benefits:
Big reduction of pain (for example, if you’re having cramps)
Signals of relaxation throughout the whole body that promotes better sleep and relaxation
Strengthening of the pelvic floor muscles, as orgasms create contractions in the pelvic muscles
Increased blood flow that helps with skin health, heart health, immune system health, digestive health, and blood pressure
Boosted immune system in general (one of my client stopped having uterine infections when she started having more orgasms)
Reduced stress (by a lot), triggered by the many feel-good hormones the body produces during and post-orgasm. Again, this lowers inflammation as well and regulates the nervous system
Some wounds (both of the soul and the body) can be healed through a repetition of orgasms. We women hold a lot of information and tension in our pelvic floors, and the release and strengthening of that region can lead to healing on multiple levels
That’s a lot. A lot of things happening in the body, simply as a response to pleasure, whether orgasmic or not.
Part of healing our womanhood means restoring our relationship to pleasure, so our body can finally unlock the benefits it carries.
The reason you have so many pleasure nerves is because your body is MEANT to operate on them. It’s an integrative part of being in a woman’s body.
My encouragement for you is to start adding more pleasure into your daily life - through your senses and your thoughts, so you can get familiar with its purpose (and benefits) in your body.
If you have questions about this, or want to respond to this, feel free to email me at audreygerber@spotlessgirl.com
I read all of your emails.
Stay radiant!
