[Amedeo]

Women in love have more testosterone while men in love have less
06 May 2004


A group of Italian scientists carried out research on how love affects people. They examined 24 people, twelve men and twelve women. They had all fallen in love during the previous six months.

They found that testosterone levels in men and women who are in love reacts differently. The men had lower levels of testosterone than normal, while the women had higher levels.

Donatella Marazziti,
==============
one of the researchers, University of Pisa, Italy, said "Men, in some way, had become more like women, and women had become like men. It's as if nature wants to eliminate what can be different in men and women, because it's more important to survive at this stage.”

The expression ‘love is blind’ may not be that far off, actually.

Key circuitry in the brain can be affected by people in love, say researchers at the University College London. Certain circuits are suppressed when people are in love – for example, if you are in love the neural circuits that are normally associated with critical social assessment of other people are subdued.

This may explain, say the scientists in this study, why people in love are often blind to the faults in the person they adore.

Love can also have more bizarre effects on the brain.

Chemicals in the brain change, according to another study carried out in Italy five years ago. According to that study, your serotonin levels go down when you are in love. The scientists found that serotonin levels of people in love are as low as people with obsessive compulsive disorders. This may explain why people who are passionately in love cannot be away from each other for long.

Some experts are even saying that all this research could take us one step closer to providing treatment for people who have relationship problems – especially problems with bonding during the critical stages of courtship.