We know that scientists have nothing else to do. For example, a team from the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London recently discovered that we can successfully treat psychosexual disorders with hormone. But their discoveries are sometimes so… sexy! We know that anxiety, stress and various other factors can lead us not just to low libido, but also to sexual dysfunction. Well, that’s where they found the pill – kisspeptin, also known as metastin, can improve activity in those brain areas that are involved with sexual arousal and romantic love. (You correctly noticed that the name of the hormone comes from the English word for a kiss – kiss, it is even written somewhere as KISS-1 – well, the kiss has its protein, you already know!) Although the topic seems funny, today we are fully aware, that psychosexual disorders are serious enough and, unfortunately, quite common. The common man is often affected by sexual disorders due to daily tension, stress, depression. Not a few, alas, are the cases in which they are due to sexual abuse or a negative perception of one’s own body (this is where bulimia and anorexia start, for example). A frequently posed problem is the erectile discussion, which obviously cannot help but be alarming, even in its milder, not always conscious form, such as successfully maintaining an erection in the time it takes to perform a sexual act. However, the topic does not concern only men, although we rarely talk about the female orgasm as we do about erectile dysfunction, its lack can also be due to a similar psychosexual disorder. Pain during intercourse and vaginismus can also be due to such. According to the leading labor researcher, Prof. Waljit Jillo, psychosexual disorder is common in couples suffering from infertility because of the stress and anxiety they experience. “Research in the field of reproductive medicine is focused on the biological factors that make conception difficult. They indeed have a major role, but we should not ignore that of the brain and emotional signals in this process, which are not unimportant and are only partially studied,” he emphasizes in a publication in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in connection with the finding of the team. An injection of the hormone in question, kisspeptin, has the potential to cure the symptoms of psychosexual disorder. This hormone is actually synthesized by the hypothalamus in the brain. Kisspeptin stimulates the synthesis of two other important hormones for the body and its reproductive functions – luteinizing and follicle stimulating, which in turn are related to the production of testosterone and estradiol. The kissing protein, according to the researchers, is also found in other brain structures such as the amygdala, which is the main culprit in the emergence of emotional and sexual behavior. To obtain these results, the scientists conducted a double-blind study with the participation of 29 young people in good health.In one stage, the men were injected with either kisspeptin or a placebo, then underwent magnetic resonance imaging, which revealed that the hormone made the brain areas in question more active and stimulated sexual arousal and romantic attitudes. After taking a placebo, even with attractive sex pictures, such a jump in libido was not registered. NEWS_MORE_BOX According to scientists, kisspeptin strengthens the behavioral patterns in the brain related to sex and romantic love, giving rise to the search for new methods of treating psychosexual disorders. But that’s not all! According to researchers, the kiss hormone can serve as an excellent tool for depression therapy. Why? During the study, volunteers injected with kisspeptin had increased activity in these brain regions involved in regulating negative mood when they were shown stressful images and pictures instead of sexual desire-inducing ones. This was not registered by tomography when observing images with neutral content. The men received kisspeptin in the experiment alone and reported on questionnaires that they felt in a better mood. Naturally, in order to create a new treatment, it is necessary to conduct a number of other studies. What is so far clear, however, is that kisspeptin increases brain activity involved in the formation of sexual and romantic emotions and improves mood.