Oxytocin (OXT) has been linked to sexual behavior across several studies. However, scant work exists that investigates OXT concentrations across a sexual encounter and researchers have yet to examine OXT concentrations during partnered sexual activity in the home environment. In the present study, a non-clinical sample of 49 mixed-sex (i.e., 49 women, 49 men) young adult romantic partners were invited to engage in sexual activity within their home environments. Participants collected their own saliva samples before and after sex, which were then assayed for OXT. Dyadic analyses identified unique OXT trajectories for women and men and helped clarify mixed findings in prior work. Although time was not a significant predictor, the pattern of means indicated that women’s OXT concentrations were highest at the start and end of the sexual episode, whereas men’s OXT concentrations increased from the start to the end of the sexual episode. The findings also identified synchronous changes between women and men’s OXT, but only within the post-sex time interval (immediately post-sex, 20 min post-sex, and 40 min post-sex). Additionally, OXT concentrations pre- and post-sex were not associated with orgasm in ways that prior work would suggest. Implications for work on OXT, biological synchrony, and methodological comparison are discussed.

在多项研究中，催产素 （OXT） 与性行为有关。然而，很少有研究性接触中 OXT 浓度的工作，研究人员尚未检查家庭环境中伴侣性活动期间的 OXT 浓度。在本研究中，邀请了 49 名混合性别（即 49 名女性，49 名男性）年轻成年浪漫伴侣的非临床样本在他们的家庭环境中进行性活动。参与者在性行为前后收集自己的唾液样本，然后对其进行 OXT 检测。二元分析确定了女性和男性独特的 OXT 轨迹，并有助于澄清先前工作中混合的发现。尽管时间不是一个显着的预测指标，但均值模式表明，女性的 OXT 浓度在性发作开始和结束时最高，而男性的 OXT 浓度从性发作开始到结束增加。研究结果还确定了女性和男性 OXT 之间的同步变化，但仅限于性行为后时间间隔内（性行为后立即、性行为后 20 分钟和性行为后 40 分钟）。此外，性行为前后的 OXT 浓度与性高潮无关，正如之前的工作所表明的那样。讨论了对 OXT、生物同步性和方法比较工作的影响。