Ready or not: Neural mechanisms regulating female sexual behavior

Female sexual behavior is essential for reproduction and species survival. It is orchestrated by hormonal and neuronal mechanisms that coordinate sexual maturation, reproductive cycle, and the copulatory sequence, preparing the female for pregnancy. These mechanisms synchronize behavioral receptivity with reproductive capacity, ensuring that copulation occurs during optimal reproductive windows while actively suppressing sexual behavior outside fertile periods. This review explores recent advances in neural mechanisms that integrate sensory, hormonal, and social cues in the female brain. We examine the main phases of sexual behavior: appetitive, consummatory, and refractory, focusing on the neural basis of sexual rejection during non-fertile periods. We also discuss studies using intersectional genetics and neural activity analysis to uncover the circuits underlying sexual receptivity and recent findings on how the female brain processes male ejaculation to trigger the refractory period. Altogether, this review sheds light on the orchestration of mating and reproductive readiness in female mice.