According to a 2023 study published in the journal Psychophysiology, both men and women may not derive the same amount of pleasure from physical touch if they’re hungry, and this has to do with the hunger hormone ghrelin.
The study employed 67 participants from both sexes. After conducting the experiment — which involved gently touching the participants’ shins on one day when they’d not eaten and another day when they were full and observing their brain scans — researchers found that the volunteers reported experiencing lower levels of pleasure on the day when they hadn’t eaten (via New York Post).
The release of ghrelin negatively impacted sexual urge, per the study. According to the researchers, per the New York Post, “Ghrelin might contribute to down-regulating the value of social stimuli to promote food-seeking instead [of focusing on pleasure]. Our results show that, beyond its established role as an appetite-stimulating hormone, ghrelin is also involved in assigning value to social rewards such as touch.” So when should men (and women) be having sex for optimal pleasure?