However, other biologists aren’t so quick to write-off the female orgasm as completely useless, outside of pleasure. “So we can not exclude that it actually has co-opted some other function after it lost its function in reproduction”. Now, a new research has found that orgasm has been left from our ape ancestors.
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This is obviously only the case for animals however, and evolution means the clitoris has shifted from inside to outside the vaginal canal in humans, taking away the link between orgasms and reproduction.
Other popular theories suggest that an orgasm is a biological reward for women, and helps to encourage them to have more intercouse and thus up their chances for reproduction, Popular Science reported.
“Prior studies have tended to focus on evidence from human biology and the modification of a trait rather than its evolutionary origin”, said Gunter Wagner, the Alison Richard Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary biology, and a member of Yale’s Systems Biology Institute. It evolved to hormonal surge induced by sex which is the crude precursor to the orgasm, reports The Australian.
Scientist may have uncovered the evolutionary mystery behind why women have evolved to have orgasms at all – knowing well that they play no obvious role in human reproduction.
If male orgasm helps prevent prostate cancer, the goal of the female orgasm is quite different. This disconnect was a later evolutionary development, the new research suggests.
The Mirror quoted the journal as saying that in many mammals, the production of these hormones acts as a trigger for the ovaries to release an egg. Another one is it creates a stronger bond between man and woman so they would stay together and have more children. “This insight enabled us to trace the evolution of the trait across species” Said Mihaela Pavlicev, another scientist involved in the study.
“In spite of the enormous diversity of mammalian reproductive biology, some core characteristics can be traced throughout mammalian evolution, note the researchers”. The female ovarian cycle in humans, for instance, is not dependent upon sexual activity.
For humans and many other mammal species, the ovulation cycle continues without sexual stimulation.
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From their analysis, the researchers found that evolution of male-induced ovulation occurred first, while spontaneous ovulation derived from this, evolving later.
