Why romantic love does not last
Jan 04, 2006
WHEN people are in love, their hormones converge and they become more like each other than at any other time.<br>Donatella Marazziti of the University of Pisa in Italy showed in 1999 that levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which has a calming effect, dip below normal in those who say they ar
A GRAIN OF SCIENCE
WHEN people are in love, their hormones converge and they become more like each other than at any other time.
Donatella Marazziti of the University of Pisa in Italy showed in 1999 that levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which has a calming effect, dip below normal in those who say they are in love. They spend inordinate amounts of time obsessing about someone.
Now Marazziti has looked at the hormonal changes that occur in people who are in love. Her team measured the blood levels of several key hormones in 12 men and 12 women who said they had fallen in love within the past six months. The researchers compared these hormone levels to those in 24 other volunteers who were either single or in stable long-term relationships.
The first finding was that both men and women in love have considerably higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, indicating that courtship can be somewhat stressful. Men who were in love also had lower levels of the male sex hormone testosterone - linked to aggression and sex drive - than the other men. Love-struck women, in contrast, had higher levels of testosterone than their counterparts, which brings testosterone levels to similar ranges.
The team reported in Psychoneuroendocrinology that it is nature’s own way of ensuring survival (and mating) at this stage.
The converging levels of testosterone not only help lovers overcome their differences but also make them blind to partner’s faults. The neural circuits that are normally associated with critical social assessment of other people are suppressed.
But the blissful state – that is romantic love – does not last. When Marazziti re-tested the same people one or two years later, when they said they were no longer madly in love, their hormone levels had returned to normal.
WHEN people are in love, their hormones converge and they become more like each other than at any other time.
Donatella Marazziti of the University of Pisa in Italy showed in 1999 that levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which has a calming effect, dip below normal in those who say they are in love. They spend inordinate amounts of time obsessing about someone.
Now Marazziti has looked at the hormonal changes that occur in people who are in love. Her team measured the blood levels of several key hormones in 12 men and 12 women who said they had fallen in love within the past six months. The researchers compared these hormone levels to those in 24 other volunteers who were either single or in stable long-term relationships.
The first finding was that both men and women in love have considerably higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, indicating that courtship can be somewhat stressful. Men who were in love also had lower levels of the male sex hormone testosterone - linked to aggression and sex drive - than the other men. Love-struck women, in contrast, had higher levels of testosterone than their counterparts, which brings testosterone levels to similar ranges.
The team reported in Psychoneuroendocrinology that it is nature’s own way of ensuring survival (and mating) at this stage.
The converging levels of testosterone not only help lovers overcome their differences but also make them blind to partner’s faults. The neural circuits that are normally associated with critical social assessment of other people are suppressed.
But the blissful state – that is romantic love – does not last. When Marazziti re-tested the same people one or two years later, when they said they were no longer madly in love, their hormone levels had returned to normal.