ALBANY (The Albany Times Union) -- Depressed? A study of 293 female students at the State University of New York at Albany suggests that a dose of semen can make you feel better.

Yes, semen.

Women who anonymously participated in a research survey on campus two years ago whose sexual partners regularly did not use condoms were less depressed than those who used a condom during sex, according to the study. The results, published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior in March, suggest that the fluid containing sperm may actually enhance mood when it is absorbed through the lining of the vagina.

Other sexual factors that could alter mood, such as birth-control pills, the frequency of sex and whether the woman was in a long-term relationship, were ruled out, said SUNY-Albany psychology professor Gordon G. Gallup, the lead author of the study.

Gallup stressed that he is not promoting unsafe sex.

"Regardless of these findings, this study does not advocate that people abstain from using condoms," said Gallup, a 61-year-old evolutionary psychologist who has been at the university since 1975. "Clearly, if you develop a sexually transmitted disease or an unwanted pregnancy, any psychological effects are not going to offset that."

Gallup's team divided 293 women ranging in age from their late teens to mid-30s into groups based on their sexual habits, then used a standard questionnaire known as the Becker Depression Inventory to measure mood.

Women who had sex without using condoms had the lowest average score on the mood test, indicating that they were less depressed. Moreover, the mood of those women worsened as more time passed since they had intercourse. The most depressed group of women in the study, which included female students who were not having sex, were those who usually used a condom.

"It's not a question of not having sex," Gallup said. "It's a question of whether there is semen in the reproductive tract."

Other researchers have questioned Gallup's results, saying that evolutionarily speaking, they don't make much sense.

Gallup counters that the mood-altering hormones in semen help develop bonds between couples.

The effects of semen on depression were first suggested in a 1986 paper in the journal Medical Hypotheses.

Gallup stumbled on it while researching a phenomenon known as menstrual synchrony - women living in close quarters developing the same menstrual cycle.

Gallup knew that the synchronization was triggered by body odor, but he couldn't understand why cohabiting lesbians' menstrual cycles did not synchronize and those of heterosexual women living in places like dormitories did.

Gallup hypothesized that semen could alter the sense of smell, and he began to research its effects.

He has followed up the initial study with a questionnaire distributed to 700 female students at SUNY-Albany.

While that research has yet to be published, he said he is seeing some interesting results.

Women whose partners do not use condoms are more likely to end one relationship and quickly enter another. Their premenstrual symptoms are also less severe, Gallup said.

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