Sexual behaviors of aging female rats: influence of age and hormonal state of male partners.
Proceptive and receptive behaviors were examined in aging and young ovariectomized female rats treated with estradiol benzoate and progesterone. Young females approached males confined in wire mesh cages more frequently and exhibited more proceptive behaviors toward these males than did middle-aged females. Both middle-aged and young females approached young males more often than they approached old males, but young females showed greater preferences for young males and for males with high levels of testosterone than did middle-aged females. Young females also exhibited more proceptive behaviors than did middle-aged and old females during tests of sexual behavior. The frequencies of lordosis responses, however, did not differ among these three groups of females.
D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D013196:Dihydrotestosterone / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004958:Estradiol / Q000494:pharmacology; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009919:Orchiectomy; D010052:Ovariectomy; D011187:Posture; D011374:Progesterone / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D013739:Testosterone / Q000494:pharmacology*
D013196:Dihydrotestosterone; D013739:Testosterone; D011374:Progesterone; D004958:Estradiol