As opposed to, say, hunger, sexual motivation is looked on with somewhat more appeal. And while in the short term hunger seems to be the only one of the two that is necessary to follow through on to survive, in the long term, sexual motivation is important for the survival of entire species. The brain, as one may expect, controls much of sexual motivation. It does so by regulating hormones; hormones are the key to sexual motivation and behavior.

Sex hormones do not cause behavior per se. Rather, hormones affect one’s motivation to behave a certain way. In the case of sex hormones, the motivation to engage in reproductive behavior is increased. For both sexes, testosterone is the major sex hormone. If testosterone levels decline in either sex, sexual motivation is somewhat decreased; if testosterone levels decline in men, they may find themselves unable to become or stay erect. For females, estradiol and progesterone are two hormones which influence sexual behavior, although in higher primates (including Homo sapiens) estradiol does not appear to be very important.

As research on sexual motivation continues, topics that are being explored include pheromones and sexual orientation. Pheromones are chemicals released by members of one sex in order to sexually attract members of the opposite sex. We already know that pheromones play an important role in many animals, but recent research is pointing toward our using pheromones as well. One of the main goals lately in terms of research on sexual orientation has been to determine how sexual orientation is determined. Science thus far has not been able to answer the question, though it continues to look for the answer.