5 Weird Things That Happen When You Get Turned On

I wouldn't go so far as to say that you're a different person when you're in the middle of a sexual encounter, but you're not exactly the same woman you were a few minutes before the basic sexual arousal kicked in. Your heart rate rises, as does your blood pressure, and your vagina doubles in size; your clitoris disappears for a little while, your boobs get bigger, and your cheeks become adorably flushed. Needless to say, a lot is happening to your body when you get turned on.

And none of this even touches on all the chemical alterations in the brain — oxytocin, adrenaline, dopamine, oh my! Your mind is getting flushed with all these incredible hormones, which prepare you for bonding, stimulate you even further, and make you feel addicted to that lover of yours. You might actually even feel a little high from them.

But all this stuff is just the tip of the iceberg (or the tip of...whatever) when it comes to the changes our bodies go through when they're aroused. They're the kind of changes we like to hear about, because there's nothing gross about gaining a cup size from a mere make out session. However, the body does some pretty strange things as well when it gets aroused — the kind of things you probably never learned about from the "birds and bees" chat you had with your mom when you got your first period. Bizarre though they may be, these physical adaptations are just as fascinating as the fundamentals. And hey, we're never too old to learn more about sex, right? So with that in mind, here are five weird things your body does when you get turned on.

1. You Become Less Grossed Out

A small 2012 Dutch study published in the journal PLoS ONE examined how prominent the "ick factor" was in females during sexual interaction. Apparently, it was quite clear to researchers that arousal "overrides feelings of disgust and facilitates a woman's desire to do something that a woman who is not aroused might find flat-out repulsive."

Research was conducted on 90 female university students, who were split up into three groups: one was given female-friendly erotica to watch; one watched a video of extreme sports, with the intention of evoking non-sexual excitement; and the last simply watched a video of a train. After being given 16 tasks to complete, the sexually aroused group of women found all the unpleasant tasks — like lubing up a vibrator — significantly less disgusting than the other two groups.

Charmaine Borg, the co-author of the study, told Huffington Post that this is extremely normal among women when they are entering a promising sexual situation. Suddenly, we're not so phased by bodily fluids, body odor, and maybe even sexual fetishes that might normally make us cringe.

2. You Blink A Lot More

No, I don't mean that you're tossing some sexy winks around. You literally blink a lot more when you're turned on; it's a signal for the glands on the inner edge of your eyelids to secrete oil, which keeps your eyes moist, and it's a way to produce more tears. That way, your vision is clear, and you don't miss a single sexy thing. Rapid eye blinking is also linked to nervousness and anxiety, which aren't always bad things, and they could come up when you're frolicking between the sheets with someone you really, really like for the first time.

3. Your Labia Changes Colors

When you're sexually aroused, your vagina goes through all sorts of changes — the tissue of the walls swell with blood, the opening narrows, and, yep, the inner labia changes colors. It's very hard to notice — especially if you're caught up in the heat of the moment and neither of you are concerned with the particulars of the lips' appearance — but a shift in color of the labia does take place.

If you've never given birth, your lips will probably go from pink to bright red; if you do have children, yours will most likely transform from bright red to deep purple. Sometimes, because women who have been through childbirth have better blood flow down there, the lips will adopt an especially dark color, particularly right before orgasm.

4. You Feel Like You Have To Pee

Your G-spot may be stimulated quite a bit as you're fooling around, so don't be alarmed if you have an unexpected urge to run to the toilet. When you feel that sensation, this is what is actually happening: The urethral sponge, located under the vulva, swells up when you're aroused in an attempt to stop you from urinating. However, any pressure on that area — even from something as small as a finger — causes your brain to misinterpret the whole sensation. You may think you have to pee, but it's just your mind being confused about the fact that all the excitement is happening geographically and neurologically next to the urethra.

5. You Might Get A Headache

All that sexual excitement could result in a good old fashioned headache — affectionately known as a "sex headache" in this context. You might get a dull ache in the neck and back of the head when you're all hot and bothered, and the intensity of the headache could potentially spike just before and/or after orgasm. These are most common among people who already experience migraine headaches, though people may experience them due to other medical issues, because of a medication they take (such as birth control pills), or for no real reason at all.

The majority of the time, these are nothing to worry about, especially if they go away shortly after the passion dies down. The Mayo Clinic's website advises that you consult a doctor if you begin to develop sudden sex headaches, which occur abruptly while in the middle of an encounter. But most sex headaches aren't a health threat — they're just another weird thing that your body does when you're turned on (that you're probably too horny to notice).

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