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Hormones Related to Relationships

Hormones are the chemical messengers of the body and are linked to romantic love, sexual arousal, social attachment between parents and their children, aggression, and many other aspects of human relationships. To understand how hormones play a role in relationships, it is first necessary to understand what hormones are and how they operate in the body. This entry explores what is known about the association between hormones and relationships, specifically social attachment, romantic relationships, and sexual behaviors.

What Are Hormones?

The word hormone comes from the Greek for “to arouse,” which is the primary function of these chemical messengers. The nervous system controls the release of the hormones. Most hormones travel through the circulatory system to stimulate target cells; however, some of these chemical messengers are released by nerve cells into the junction between two nerve cells (the synapse) or transported by the cerebrospinal fluid. Hormones are also called neuroregulators because they stimulate or inhibit functioning in the nervous system. The steroid hormones are produced in the testes (androgens including testosterone) and ovaries (estrogens and progestins). Two of the hormones most associated with human relationships, oxytocin and vasopressin, are considered neurohormones or neuropeptides because they are manufactured in the hypothalamus area of the brain and then stored for subsequent release from the nerve terminals in the posterior pituitary gland. The hypothalamus is a part of the brain involved with the regulations of functions such as emotional behavior, arousal (including sexual arousal), biological rhythms, and homeostasis of the systems in the body.

Social Attachment and Love

Social attachment is thought to be at the heart of emotional bonds formed between people. This can be the bond between parents and their children, couples in love, and other forms of social bonds. The first of these bonds to be formed is the attachment between a caregiver and an infant. This attachment provides a secure foundation for the infant's development, providing protection, nourishment, and socializing interactions. Research indicates that secure attachment between the child and caregiver is important to healthy child development.

Caregiver-Infant Social Attachment

Mothers experience a series of heightened hormonal processes before and during the birth of their children, including stress hormones from the adrenal glands and the release of oxytocin and vasopressin. Oxytocin is integral to the muscular contractions necessary for labor and delivery as well as to the production of milk by the breast tissues. Suckling by infants also increases oxytocin production. In both women and men, oxytocin and vasopressin appear to dampen stress by regulating the neuroendocrine components of the body that control stress-related hormones and enhancing the function of the parasympathetic nervous system that physiologically soothes the body (e.g., slow heart rate, lower blood pressure). Neural receptors for oxytocin are highly concentrated in the parts of the brain associated with parenting behavior, emotional bonding between people, sexual behavior, and the capacity to form social attachments. Oxytocin and vasopressin are essential to a series of critical attachment behaviors in both women and men, including social recognition memory (learning the identity of the infant or adult partner), recognition of social and emotional facial cues (critical to successful nurturance), and trust (critical to the security of the relationship). Higher levels of oxytocin during and after pregnancy are associated with better maternal bonding behaviors in women including affectionate touch and warm thoughts about the baby. Experimental studies with men have found that the inhalation of oxytocin is linked to increased trust and enhanced ability to read facial emotional cues. These neuro-peptides play a role in social attachment, and the lack of social attachment may affect the development of offspring. For example, orphans raised in aberrantly low caregiving and neglectful environments exhibited lower than normal levels of oxytocin in response to their adoptive mothers' physical contact. These orphans also exhibited abnormally low levels of vasopressin.

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