Monthly Archives: January 2012

I recently read in an article that Lady Gaga attributes her beautiful skin complexion to lots of orgasms. That statement sounds a little exaggerated, but might there be a drop of truth in it? What actually happens in our skin during an orgasm?
There are in fact lots and lots of physiological processes happening in our skin during sex and in particular with orgasms. We all know that on a systemic level our heart rate, breathing rate and blood pressure goes up during sex, which allows our body to pump more oxygen around the body. The skin’s blood circulation will also go up and with it the skin’s oxygen and nutrient supply. The skin becomes warmer and might look flushed, as adrenaline dilates the body’s superficial blood vessels.
With skin temperature going up, our sweat glands will increase their perspiration rate. And this applies not just to our ‘normal’ sweat glands, but also special types of gland called ‘apocrine sweat glands’. They secrete pheromones in sexual arousal and are located in our skin around the nipples, in armpits and genito-anal area. But not only our sweat glands work harder during sex, the skin’s oil glands also tend to produce more skin nourishing oils.
About half of all women or even more may develop a peculiar looking ‘sex rash’ (‘sex flush’) with sexual arousal or orgasm. This measles-like appearance with pink spots and patches on tummy, chest, face or even the entire body is caused by a temporarily increased blood flow in the skin and is nothing to worry about. It typically disappears minutes after orgasm, but in some cases may stay for an hour or two.
After orgasm, our muscles relax, blood pressure drops and the body slows down from its excited state. A study showed that women have lower stress and cortisol levels after an orgasm, which can only be good for our skin, as high cortisol is known to contribute to collagen degradation.
So, Lady Gaga was right then, in that orgasms lead to short-term benefits in our skin. But what’s going on in our skin in terms of long-term effects with regular orgasms? There isn’t much scientific research published, I am afraid. However, looking at the proven short-term benefits, regular orgasms can’t be a bad thing if you ask me …

With the American version of ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ movie hitting our cinemas, tattoos might become even more popular than they are already. However, it is not uncommon for women to get a tattoo thinking this is the best thing ever, but then regretting it later. Maybe even assuming that if they don’t like it any longer in the future, they could always have it lasered away. Well, let me tell you, tattoo removal is not an easy option, even with the most advanced lasers. Apart from the fact that any laser treatment is rather expensive, there are often many treatment sessions needed to gradually fade an unwanted tattoo. And sometimes, depending on the exact ink colour, the tattoo might not even go completely, but leave a shadow behind for good.

What is laser treatment anyway? ‘Laser’ is an acronym for ‘light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation’. So lasers are sources of high intensity light with a single wavelength, i.e. monochromatic. The aim of laser treatment is to destroy a target structure (e.g. pigment) with heat, while ideally not harming any surrounding tissue, as thermal damage of surrounding tissue might result in scaring. That means that different types of lasers have to be used to treat different problems – there unfortunately isn’t one for all. If you want to treat a vascular birth mark such as a port wine stain for example, you need a laser wavelength, which is predominantly absorbed by haemoglobin in our blood vessels, while treating unwanted hair requires a laser wavelength, which is absorbed by the pigment in the hair. For tattoo removal on the other hand, the appropriate laser light will target the ink pigment used. The altered ink pigment is then removed from the skin by a certain type of scavenging cells called macrophages. The exact choice of laser for tattoo removal depends on the colour, depth and chemical nature of the tattoo ink. Yellow, orange and green ink colours are generally the most tricky to remove. And as with all laser treatments, textural skin changes and scars may occur if you are unlucky.

Now, how about this – why don’t you get temporary tattoo (say for a party or so), which lasts a few days to avoid regrets later? I have recently seen a temporary tattoo kit containing a variety of easy to apply tats in Boots and thought to myself that more people should use these instead of going straight for the ‘real stuff’. And the best thing about these zero commitment tattoos? Removal requires no lasers!