Some people like cuddling after they have had sex, while others want to, well, do it all over again. Doing it immediately again, though, is not as easy as it may seem, and that’s because there’s something called the refractory period, that has a say in when you’ll be ready to go again. This is a concept that both men and women should be educated on, as it will help them understand the processes in their bodies much better.
If you’re ready to get educated, then you have some important questions on your mind. The first one being – what is the refractory period? And then, you also want to know how it presents in men and women respectively, and whether it’s the same. Furthermore, most people want to check if there’s something they can do about shortening this period, and we’ll answer all of those questions for you below.
What Is The Refractory Period?
The refractory period is the time frame between reaching the last climax and becoming sexually aroused once again. It is also known as the resolution or the restoration stage. The actual time necessary for people to get aroused and be ready to go again varies from one person to another, meaning that we’re all different in this regard. The phase can last anywhere from seconds to hours, or even days in some cases. Things are also different between males and females here, so let’s check how the refractory period presents in both of those genders respectively.
Males
During the refractory period, males are unable to get an erection or ejaculate again. The reaction is first psychological, given that the person will lose interest in sex immediately after having it, and then it is followed by the physiological reaction, i.e. physical inability to get hard and ejaculate. This refractory phase lasts longer in men, but the length will vary from one individual to another. You could recover in a few minutes, or it can take even more than 24 hours to do so. What’s even weirder, some men don’t experience this phase at all.
The origins and the factors influencing this period are still not that well known, although researchers are doing their best to figure it out. It has been speculated that the hormone prolactin can impact this ability to experience one orgasm right after another. This theory could be corroborated by the fact that females produce more prolactin after an orgasm, but you have to understand the female refractory period so as to get why this is important.
Read more on this phase: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refractory_period_(sex)
Females
While females can also enter the refractory period, it tends to be quite shorter than the one males experience. This is exactly why females are able to have multiple orgasms, one right after the other. Research is usually done on men when this phase is in question, so the female restoration phase is not that well understood, although the fact that they produce more prolactin, as explained above, could have something to do with it.
Can You Shorten It?
Another reason why more research is done on males when this is in question is because they are the group that struggles more with this period. In other words, since females are capable of recovering so quickly, males are the ones who want to keep up. Thus, studies are conducted to determine not only what influences this phase, but also whether men can shorten it.
So, can you, in fact, shorten it? Usually, it is recommended for people to take actions that will improve their overall sexual activities, such as exercise more, maintain a healthy weight, eating a healthy diet, as well as treating any underlying condition that could influence this period. Click this to get a clearer idea on what it is and whether it can be reduced.
Apart from that, it’s been found that some erectile dysfunction drugs could shorten the refractory phase in males. While those drugs have been shown to shorten the phase, they cannot completely eliminate it. Still, they can be a good solution for men struggling with very long restoration phases, so you might want to give them a try.