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Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Why do i always cry after sex?

53 replies

lolaflores · 16/12/2011 11:30

it creeps up on me moments after making love. big sobs from the bottom of my guts. and today, I just can;'t stop crying. Our sex life is curtailed by my back problems, so any chance we get to have a go is a big moment. then I end up snivelling and so on. Any explanations gratefully received.

OP posts:
SnapesMistressofMerriment · 16/12/2011 19:12

Do you feel sad or is a more involuntary physical thing?

Do you have any past issues with sex? e.g. rapes or child abuse?

Do you feel like you are being treated with respect during sex or as a piece of meat?

Does your partner open up to you over sex or shut you out? Does he have any sexual issues?

Is your relationship good in general?

What are your hormones like? Is there any reason for them to have changed recently?

These are some of the things that I can think of that might have a bearing on it.

ReduceRecycleRegift · 16/12/2011 19:17

sometimes if I am going through a really tense time this happens to me after orgasm.

I can't cry when I'm upset usually, not even when bereaved! since a teen I've worked in sometimes quite a sad job where I'ld have to not show my own emotions much and I think that continues into my private life and I can't always let emotions out. IMO that is why at those times I sometimes cry after orgasm because you have to "let go" IYKWIM. I don't think it's because of the sex itself

FreyaoftheNorth · 17/12/2011 13:27

Depression after sex is a known - though not well known - problem.
The drop in hormones after orgasm can lead to a big change in mood for some people, and if you have other worries about yourself or the relationship, or memories of past traumas, it can make them seem much worse.

I get this too. When I was younger was aware of needing a bottomless pit of conversational non sexual attention, reassurance, admiration and waiting-on to assuage it, whilst also knowing I didn't want to feel like that and that my wishes were unrealistic. I did sometimes end up crying after a while.

These days I like to go to sleep for a bit on my own (roll over and grunt, stereotypical man-style) and then do something completely different, usually watching a trashy film with minimal romantic content on DVD. This enables me to keep my mood more stable and everything feels more peaceful. It is a bit like dealing with a hangover, but without the nausea, TBH.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-coital_tristesse
www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/health/views/20mind.html
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22875051/ns/health-sexual_health/t/even-great-sex-can-end-post-coital-blues/#.TuyVcXr2uSo

FreyaoftheNorth · 17/12/2011 13:30

And another, more recent one: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110330094106.htm

sakura · 17/12/2011 14:31

A book you might find interesting is "Loving to Survive".
It's a radical feminist book, so obviously controversial, but the argument is sound.
The author argues that women are trauma bonded to men, individually, and as a group, through a variety of ways. Intercourse is one way the bond can occur, especially if the man in question shows kindness. Kindness is crucial to the completion of the trauma bond.
With intercourse, it is women, and only women, who can be harmed physically by an unwanted pregancy. Therefore it makes sense that women have might have more emotional investment in the sex act. Lots of women who have sex with a man for the first time for example, find themselves inexplicably hanging around waiting for his phone call the next day... whereas the men often don't feel as bonded to the women they fuck... it's possible that this is because they're not experiencing any trauma. Sex is not traumatic in any way at all for men. There is no physical boundary violation. For women, the man is inside you, which seems okay, but step back and think about the effect this might have on your sense of boundaries and physical integrity.

A blogger has written some fabulous stuff on this subject:

"because the sad, sick truth of it is that every single man with whom we have ever had intercourse is just some tool who laid pipe, at our expense. thats all. if it hurts to think about it that way?well it hurts, whether or not you choose to think about it. thats kind of my point, actually. PIV hurts and is harmful to women, but not to men. how can you tell? we form emotional bonds with men we have fucked, that are inappropriate, and not reciprocal. work backwards, if you have to, if you cant see that PIV hurts, and is dangerous to women. look at the most common ?female response? to PIV (emotional attachment), and tell me it doesnt look a hell of a lot like another commonly-recognized bonding-response to having experienced extreme terror, and the fear of death.

women also manage not to stalk or murder our lovers, really, ever. they are our war-buddies, afterall. not our pets, our our property. see how womens alleged ?obsession? with men really has no correlate with mens sexual obsession with women? a more reasonable correlate (besides stockholm syndrome) would appear to be a kind of one-sided war-buddy syndrome, which normally creates intense emotional bonds between people, who face death with each other, in times of war.

those are my thoughts at the moment. that, and something i might have wondered about if i were about 15 years younger, cause i dont really care at this point: if we made PIV more traumatic for men, would they have the common decency to pick up the fucking phone the next day, but without going all stalker?"

A little controversial, maybe, but certainly not dull. I enjoy opinions that are off the beaten track Grin

Malificence · 17/12/2011 14:57

"women also manage not to stalk or murder our lovers" How ridiculous., not to mention a load of man hating crap

Women absolutely do both, as well as murder and abuse their own children.

Most men are not the enemy.

Conflugenglugen · 17/12/2011 15:05

sakura - i'm a pretty open-minded person, but i think the writer of that excerpt needs help.

RandomMess · 17/12/2011 15:11

Lola sometimes I cry it is just some sort of emotional release, I suppose. Something about feeling vulnerable and intimate, I guess I let my guard down, I don't see it as a bad thing.

BloooCowWonders · 17/12/2011 15:14

The release of hormones can do many things. Crying is a typical reaction to big stuff but so is laughing uncontrollably. If your life is a bit up-and-down at the moment, your body will welcome any sort of relief.

RandomMess · 17/12/2011 15:20

Isn't it loads of endorphins that having an orgasm releases? You're probably just as high as a kite Grin

ReduceRecycleRegift · 17/12/2011 16:56

what conflugen said

I do what freya does actually, don't really cuddle after sex, roll over or get up and make a snack etc

Longtallsally · 17/12/2011 17:14

I do too, but not every time - more when things have been really really nice Smile I think of it as an emotional release too, not a problem.

However, it sounds as if it feels like a problem to you. Do you find that you feel sad/vulnerable/exposed/depressed, or something else when you cry?

sakura · 18/12/2011 00:22

I think the writer is funny, and extraordinarily intelligent.
Maybe she needs help, but could anyone else on here think outside the box like she does.
No.
All most women can do is repeat the mantras that male psychologists, therapists and psychoanalysts have drilled into them through popular culture i,e you MUST enjoy sex at ALL times. Any woman who doesn'T is WEIRD at best, or at worst, a PRUDE. Crying after sex? Get thee down to therapists office ASAP,. THere is no logical explanation for a woman to cry or be teary after sex....
... or is there....?

sakura · 18/12/2011 00:23

Malificence, check out the stats.
Family annihilators and rapists are overwhelmingly men. WOmen women do kill it is often after suffering years of abuse.

sakura · 18/12/2011 00:23

"wHEN" women

Wabbit · 18/12/2011 00:35

I think it's an emotional release... the crying.

for me it is far less explainable... when sex has been 'especially nice' I end up in fits of uncontrollable giggles... i think this is the same response just a different execution of the response...

Honestly... go with the tears

Far easier for HIM to deal with!!!

sakura · 18/12/2011 00:38

yes,,, but emotional release from what ?
WOmen who practice SM (on the M-side) say exactly the same thing. It is cathartic: the pain and humiliation and tears gives them an emotional relese.

HugosGoatee · 18/12/2011 00:48

I agree that a woman has to physically and emotionally 'open up' to have sex. I disagree that this is in any way comparable to being hurt. It is very empowering to have a man desire you, and to allow him to penetrate you gives you great power, equal to the power he has when he penetrates you physically.

OP - do you perhaps sometimes struggle to be open emotionally, so when you orgasm or have an intense sexual experience, it's like a huge release for you and very cathartic?

Fwiw I don't tend to cry (have done in the past) but do often need to take a moment after orgasm to just soak in all the intense feelings, held tightly Smile

It's feel-good hormones flooding your body, innit. Do what you feel!

HugosGoatee · 18/12/2011 00:51

Sakura - the OP isn't talking about masochism, nor any other sort of self-punishment - she's talking (I think) about good, intense and fulfilling sex.

Which I think is a healthy activity for both sexes involved.

HugosGoatee · 18/12/2011 00:52

Wabbit Grin I've done that

sakura · 18/12/2011 00:54

HUgos, the question I am asking is, why does the OP have the same reaction as women who practice sadomasochism? Exactly the same reaction.

Could it be, that being penetrated is not quite the same as penetrating someone?

Well, let's look at the language men use.

Fuck. THey fuck women. Women are fucked by men. Well, some call it making love, but they're just being polite. Men who make love to their wives are often fucking prostites on the side.

sakura · 18/12/2011 00:55

for clarification: the OP is definitely not the only woman who gets teary after sex. It's a common phenomenon.

Wabbit · 18/12/2011 01:03

Thank fuck I'm not the only one!!!

sakura · 18/12/2011 01:06

yeah, but nobody here except me is answering the OP's question, which is why does she cry after sex? Emotional release from what ? Are you saying women are simply biologically predisposed to tears after intercourse? THat this is natural.
Do lesbians cry after sex, to the same extent that heterosexual women do? What is so overwhelming? And the most important question here, which everybody is avoiding, is why do men not cry after sex?

WTFlike · 18/12/2011 01:06

Sakura, you have issues you need to take well away from this thread.

Swipe left for the next trending thread