The pause afterwards
Post-orgasmic refractory period
Also searched as Post-orgasmic refractory period.
In depth
The interval after orgasm during which another is not possible. The honest state of knowledge is that nobody has pinned it to a single molecule — it appears to involve several neurotransmitter and hormone systems acting together.
What drives it
Prolactin increases it.
A number of physiological, hormonal and neurochemical changes occur at orgasm; some of these cause, and are caused by, events that inhibit sexual excitation and induce a refractory period. Note: prolactin is a readout of dopamine withdrawal, not the cause of refractoriness. Sexual Medicine Reviews 13(3):381 — Orgasms, sexual pleasure, and opioid reward mechanisms.
Blends that modulate it
Each blend page names this pathway and carries the study behind its claim.
See it on the map
Open the causal map to follow this pathway upstream and downstream, arrow by arrow, each with its study.