title: Endocrinology of human female sexuality, mating, and reproductive behavior.
abstract: Hormones orchestrate and coordinate human female sexual development, sexuality, and reproduction in relation to three types of phenotypic changes: life history transitions such as puberty and childbirth, responses to contextual factors such as caloric intake and stress, and cyclical patterns such as the ovulatory cycle. Here, we review the endocrinology underlying women's reproductive phenotypes, including sexual orientation and gender identity, mate preferences, competition for mates, sex drive, and maternal behavior. We highlight distinctive aspects of women's sexuality such as the possession of sexual ornaments, relatively cryptic fertile windows, extended sexual behavior across the ovulatory cycle, and a period of midlife reproductive senescence-and we focus on how hormonal mechanisms were shaped by selection to produce adaptive outcomes. We conclude with suggestions for future research to elucidate how hormonal mechanisms subserve women's reproductive phenotypes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, United States.
authors.forename: Natalie V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Motta-Mena
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Center for Brain, Behavior, and Cognition, Center for Human Evolution and Diversity, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802¸ United States. Electronic address: dap27@psu.edu.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Puts
mesh_terms: D004704:Endocrinology; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007989:Libido / Q000502:physiology; D008393:Marriage; D012098:Reproduction / Q000502:physiology*; D043762:Reproductive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D012741:Sexual Maturation / Q000502:physiology; D012747:Sexual Partners; D019529:Sexuality / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones
keywords: Cortisol; Estradiol; Ovarian hormones; Oxytocin, progesterone; Prolactin; Sexuality; Testosterone