Being sexually excited is one of the four stages of the sexual response cycle which is the desire or emotional wanting to have sex, getting sexually attracted towards someone either by seeing them, by their smell or their touch, some may even get excited just by someone’s voice.
When you’re turned on, there are physical and emotional changes your body experiences. when one asks what happens when a female is sexually excited, they’re referring specifically to the female experience because it’s different for both males and females.
After getting aroused which is the second stage, the sexual response cycle comes into play.
Sexual activity mainly includes foreplay, oral and sometimes the usage of a sex toy according to the taste of the partners. There are penile and vaginal contractions happening due to a surge of sex hormones.
To understand what happens when a female is sexually excited, one must know what causes it and how it affects the body physically, emotionally and psychologically.
1. Sexual Response Cycle
A four-stage model of physiological responses and emotional responses to sexual stimuli in a pattern of sequential stages that are- excitement, plateau phase, orgasmic and resolution is called a human sexual response cycle. And being sexually excited is the beginning of this cycle.
While all normal individuals are born with neurophysiology necessary for the sexual response cycle, inherent decides the intensity of the responses. The sexual cycle beings in a person when they are sexually aroused and later take part in sexual activities including intercourse (penial-vaginal penetration) or masturbation (stimulation of the genitalia for sexual pleasure or females use nipple stimulation for it). In both cases, sex toys can be used according to the individual’s preference.
Here we’ll discuss, what happens when a female is sexually excited, its symptoms, her sexual health, what it means to be sexually aroused, the biology behind being sexually excited and many more.
1.1 Sexual Desire
When a female is sexually excited it is the emotional or bodily urge to want to have sex. It is the spontaneous sexual desire or libido which in turn causes certain physiological and psychological changes. It leads to the motivation to have sex or in layman’s terms “a person gets horny.”
For women in a new relationship, the love and infatuation in the honeymoon phase fuel a strong sexual response and high sexual excitement. A sexual desire can also develop either by reading erotic things like novels or either just by the thought of sex or watching porn. There could be a few more cues to have a sexual desire. A woman can feel “horny” just because her partner finds her sexually desirable or attractive.
After feeling sexually desired, the body becomes sexually aroused which involves certain bodily changes which are covered in the next part.
I. Sexual Arousal and Sexually Aroused
Sexual arousal usually beings in the brain, which is sometimes called the biggest sexual organ. The brain responds to a thought of someone, their touch, and seeing someone attractive by sending signals to the rest of the body.
The brain sends signals to the genitalia too. The female sexual response to being sexually excited is sexual arousal. A female’s menstrual cycle also plays an important role towards her sexual desire. Women have the highest sex drive during ovulation, mostly because a woman is the most fertile in this phase.
A female might get sexually aroused by different sources such as seeing someone or finding someone attractive, or someone they find appealing, their partner, watching or reading erotic materials such as pornography or having sexual thoughts the list goes on. This generates physical, emotional and psychological reactions which lead to sexual arousal. Sexual excitement for many scientists is a physiological body response to the above-mentioned sources of sexual arousal.
It is the first stage of the sex cycle. The hypothalamus, which controls all the hormones in the body, responds to arousal when a person touches, kisses or does other sexual things to the partner. The peripheral nervous system gets the signal and forwards it to the brain to secrete sex hormones. The sex drive or libido increases which makes the desire to want to have sex more.
After getting sexually excited, physiological changes are happening in both partners.
Here we’ll discuss the changes and what happens when a female is sexually excited or aroused.
The female’s body responds to sexual excitement by having certain physiological changes in the body mainly in the erogenous zones.
Erogenous zones are body parts which have a lot of nerve endings and when they’re touched it makes one feel aroused or excited. Genital areas such as the vagina, vulva, anus, clitoris, labia, and penis. other erogenous zones are breasts and nipples in females.
The following are the changes that occur when a female is sexually excited or when she’s turned on:
- The vagina gets wet because of the increased blood flow which induces the secretion of lubricating fluid from the Bartholin’s glands. The vaginal canal might expand, and the vaginal walls swell along with the colour of the vagina darkens.
- The clitoris, it’s part labia (labia minora and labia majora) and vulva swell up due to the increased blood flow because the blood vessels dilate in these areas.
- The nipples get hard or erect and become more sensitive to the touch. the breast gets fuller.
These changes differ in different people because everyone has a different amount of libido. Sex drive or libido can change based on the level of stress, medicines or other physical, and emotional factors of a person.
General characteristics of getting aroused also include:
- Blood pressure rises including the rise in the heartbeat and pulse.
- Because of a rise in blood flow, the cheeks and chest might flush.
- Sweating
Many women experience these changes, a woman may or may not experience everything that has been mentioned above. When people talk about what happens when a female is sexually excited, they neglect the psychological as well as physiological changes.
A female’s libido rises which causes these symptoms to increase, specific secretion of more lubricating fluid, and contractions in the pelvic area start to occur which leads to the next stage which is the plateau stage.
Before heading to the plateau stage, the woman should be sexually aroused to have sex, otherwise, it’ll cause a discomfort and lack of motivation to have sex.
1.2 Plateau Phase
In the plateau stage, breathing becomes more rapid and muscles continue to tense, vaginal lubrication increases, and male erection gets more erect. These two characteristics are important to have healthy penetrative sex. When someone asks what happens when a female is sexually excited, vaginal lubrication is the first thing that comes in one’s mind.
The characteristics of the plateau stage not only hold for penetrative sex but also hold for oral sex, and masturbation i.e. using hands for sexual stimulation or using sex toys like a dildo as a penis. During sexual intercourse or just for masturbation, in both, a sex toy can be used. A person can use any of these to enjoy sex and one’s sex life is not limited to these only.
This stage can take a person to altered consciousness often referred to as “the heat of the moment” which makes the sexual activity more enjoyable. The performance of sexual activities can include many things such as foreplay– kissing, caressing, touching erogenous zones like nipples, rubbing the vagina and in men stroking the penis; these are all sexual stimulation that intensifies sexual pleasure that increases sexual responses.
Older women experience fewer sexual thoughts and are less sexually aroused than younger women. Young women tend to have a high sex drive, high libido and high sexual response to sexual stimuli.
Sexual tension at this phase starts to increase leading to sex. During sex, the so-called love hormone, oxytocin helps in the contraction of vaginal walls. Women tend to moan when they’re enjoying sex as well as it helps to speed up their partner’s climax and few women stated that moaning and other vocalizations during sex boost their partner’s self-esteem. Moaning is a sign that she’s enjoying sex.
The walls of the vagina keep on contracting and releasing in a rhythm while having penetrative sex or by using a dildo. Women’s clitoris becomes highly sensitive and might even be painful to touch. Female sexual excitement increases more and more leading to orgasm.
1.3 Orgasm
During orgasm, a woman’s pelvic floor contracts rhythmically and voluntarily. Blood pressure and heart rate rise along with heavy breathing. These are the female sexual responses when a woman’s orgasm begins, and it is the most thrilling phase when a female is sexually excited.
Who we are romantically, physically or emotionally attracted to is known as one’s sexual orientation. Sexual orientation plays an important role in sexual activities because it decides with whom a person wants to have sex or what things that’ll have sex more pleasurable. If a person is sure about their sexual orientation, especially females, then there will be a high chance of achieving an orgasm.
Orgasm begins with rhythmic contractions of vaginal walls, and when a female reaches orgasm, there’s a sudden forceful release of sexual tension.
The vagina gets wet before and during orgasm.
Sexual arousal reaches its peak. arousal to climax is what happens when a female is sexually excited.
There are different ways in which a female can achieve orgasm such as by oral, anal, masturbation, either by stimulating erogenous zones such as nipples or fingering again or rubbing the clitoris in a circular motion but the most common one is vaginal stimulation either through sex with an erected penis or by using a sex toy. The G-spot is usually responsible for a vaginal orgasm.
An orgasm is a build-up pleasure just before the climax after which the body goes into the resolution stage. The duration of an orgasm can be controlled somehow. It is possible to extend the time by stopping the sexual stimuli just before the climax, waiting for around 30 seconds and then continuing with the sexual activity. It increases the intensity of the climax, making it stronger, better and bigger when it finally happens. The climax is the euphoric state of the whole sexual activity. People experience sex flush when they are close to orgasm and disappear within 5 minutes after orgasm.
What happens when a female is sexually excited is that she can have multiple orgasms while a male cannot. Multiple orgasms refer to having more than one orgasm in a single session. However, many women struggle to orgasm. Anorgasmia happens when there are less intense orgasms, infrequent or absence of orgasm after adequate sexual stimulation. Straight females experience fewer orgasms than their male partners.
Female orgasms have always been the most fantasizing thing for the media world and often people have cashed in on it. But then again this also shows that a woman reaching orgasm is talked about and celebrated by both males and females. Netflix’s show “sex education” helps to know about female orgasms, and their anatomy, especially about vulva, vagina and breasts. They also briefed about how to stimulate your or your partner’s clitoris, vulva and vagina to achieve climax.
Check out: Sex And When To Have It
1.4 Resolution Phase
During this stage, everything slowly comes back to normal. The blood pressure drops, the increased blood flow in the blood vessels of the genitals reduces, and the female sexual arousal drops down to neutral and the swollen and erect body parts mainly the penis and vagina return to their previous colour and size. The body becomes completely relaxed and a person feels a sense of well-being many females can attain arousal soon after the resolution phase.
These stages answer almost everything one needs to know about what happens when a female is sexually excited.
2. What Have We Learnt from the Sexual Response Cycle?
A summary of what happens when a female is sexually excited in the sexual response cycle, they are as follows:
- The female sexual cycle may vary from woman to woman and also varies in the same individual over the life cycle. Reaching orgasm is more difficult for women than for men.
- To know what happens when a female is sexually excited, females should be in touch with their sexual orientation, and they should teach themselves the art of self-pleasure as well.
- As a person begins reaching the end of orgasm, the contractions of both the penis and vagina get stronger and the climax happens, here the sexual pleasure is most intense. After this stage, the last step happens which is the resolution. The body gets back to its normal level of functioning and the body parts including the genitals get back to their original size and colour, such as a swelled vagina and erected penis gets back to their normal physiology.
- Not all females have all these characteristics and may differ based on their age, orientation, the way of enjoying sex.
- Hormones especially love hormones play a crucial role in reaching climax and resolution is an important phase which makes the body relax.
3. Problems in the Sex Life of Women
A woman’s sexuality is a vital part of her being, from which she can derive confidence, intimacy, pleasure and motherhood. Therefore, there should be a balance, and if this balance is disrupted, it causes feelings of distress leading to different sexual disorders. Therefore, what happens when a female is sexually excited is an interesting as well as a crucial topic to understand about a female’s sexual desires and needs which very few talk about.
Sexual dysfunction or sexual disorder is the recurrence of sexual problems such as problems faced when a female is sexually excited, problems associated with achieving adequate sexual response etc. Many women face difficulties in their sex life that don’t allow them to enjoy sex much. The most common problem faced by women is that a woman is not able to achieve climax.
As mentioned above, anorgasmia is a type of sexual dysfunction common in females due to certain physical, emotional or psychological factors such as older age, shyness, history of sexual abuse, poor self-esteem, culture or religious belief and many more. Sometimes, the inability to reach orgasm can lead to distress and makes it even harder to achieve orgasm in the future. These are some issues that make it difficult for a female to be sexually excited.
The physical signs of female dysfunction include painful contraction of the muscle around the vagina, and lack of sexual desire due to which there will be insufficient vaginal lubrication for sex which might lead to painful penetrations.
Apart from these dysfunctions, a woman can still enjoy sex. Some ways help to do so such as by going to therapy or using medicines prescribed by the doctor for the certain dysfunction or going to a sexologist if one is comfortable with it.
4. Conclusion
In this article, we understood what happens when a female is sexually excited, it is the physical and emotional response to sexual stimuli. The shortest phase of orgasm usually leads to a feeling of euphoria at the end of it i.e., the climax. Some females are not able to achieve climax but enjoy sexual activity. All stage’s characteristics are different for different females and arise with age as well.
Not being able to achieve orgasm is fine and many females find it difficult to reach climax, but it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. Although females can have sexual dysfunction if it’s happening constantly over some time. Sexual dysfunction can be treated by sharing problems with a sexologist, through medications or even by sharing. Many use sex toys to increase pleasure during sex. one can achieve orgasm through masturbation as well.
Also, sex can be made more pleasurable by sharing your sexual thoughts, what you like in bed, what body parts are the most sensitive to touch, and using sex toys. Self-experimenting with using sex toys can improve your libido, you’ll get to know what arouses you more, and which part of your body is more sensitive. Who knew the answer to “what happens when a female is sexually excited” can be this intriguing?
Why is sex such a taboo especially for females? enjoy it. own it. love it. talk about it.
feel no shame!
Last Updated on by Sathi