A team of Norwegian researchers has concluded that women and men function differently when it comes to wanting sex, with women at their most active in the spring and men in the autumn. The research team at the University of Tromsø in northern Norway has concluded that female sexual desire is determined by the light and the sun.
"Women follow the light with regards to sexual interest, but surprisingly men don't. Although both women and men reach their nadir in December," said Arne Holte at the University of Tromsø (UIT) to broadcaster NRK.
Holte has studied the connection between sexual lust and light among young people in Tromsø, Alta and Hammerfest in northern Norway and concluded that April/May is the period when women display a heightened interest in sex.
Men however tend to be most sexually active in August.
"It's a little strange, one would think that both would peak at the same time," said Kral Arne Stokkan, a professor of arctic biology at the university, explaining that experts remain uncertain as to why.
The amount of sunlight is however generally known to have an impact on the amount of various hormones, such as endorphins, produced by the body and thus an explanatory factor determining heightened sexual activity.
According to sexologist Bente Træen at the University of Tromsø, men's sexuality is considered to be more stable while women's is more affected by surroundings and by menstruation.
She argued that while men produce testosterone all the time, female hormones affecting sexual interest increase as the amount of daylight increases.
"This is connected to the feeling of being in love and the secretion of dopamine, which stimulates the pleasure centre in the brain," she told NRK.
The Local (news@thelocal.no)