Semen contains “mood-altering chemicals” that are good for a women’s physical and mental health, scientists have found.

Researchers Gordon Gallop and Rebecca Burch from State University of New York and psychologist Steven Platek from the university of Liverpool predicted women who have more unprotected sex would be less depressed than those using protection. This was based on the fact that semen contains “mind-altering” drugs like mood-elevating estrone and oxytocin, affection promoting cortisol, sleep inducing melatonin and antidepressant prolactin and serotonin.

The researchers conducted an anonymous survey of 293 female university students, Medical Daily reported. They quizzed them on their sex lives and asked them to complete the Beck Depression Inventory, a commonly used clinical measure of depressive symptoms.

Researchers indirectly measured seminal plasma circulating in the woman’s body by how recently participants had unprotected sex.

Results, published in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour, found even after allowing for frequency of intercourse, those who had sex and “never” used condoms showed less depressive symptoms than women who “usually” or “always” used protection.

Those having unprotected sex were also happier than women who abstained from sex.

Promiscuous women who used condoms were just as depressed as those who didn’t have sex at all, leading researchers to suggest that semen, not sex, makes women happier.

Source: nzherald.co.nz