Lifelong celibacy is a different prospect than experiencing s£x and then stopping it. (Yes, scientists do study celibate people: The Nun Study, which looks at the health of a 600-strong group of American nuns, has been ongoing since 1986.) If you’ve had s£x before and now you aren’t, the impacts go beyond a constant urge to do deeds with another human. Celibacy has effects on your body, but they’re hardly life-threatening, and they aren’t going to get in the way of your next s£xual adventure.
Here are nine things that happen to your body after you stop having s£x.
1. It Doesn’t Tighten Your Private Part?
Abstaining from s£x does not make you “tighter.” That’s an urban myth. The sensation of “tightness” in your vagina is not influenced by your number of s£xual partners, and taking a break doesn’t re-organize you. And your hymen doesn’t grow back, no matter what you may have heard in the bathrooms in middle school. However, the tissues of the private part may get out of the habit of relaxing in response to arousal or insertion, and may then need to be coached back into it the next time you have s£x. Don’t worry; they’ll remember.
According to sexologist Dr. Jordin Wiggins, ND, owner, and creator of Health Over All Inc., people who do not have s£x for a long period may notice a weakening of the pelvic floor muscles, called atrophy. “We need strong pelvic floor muscles to improve bladder tone and prevent urine leakage and to have good quality orgasms.” People with private parts who abstain from knocking boots might also notice pelvic floor dysfunction, “which could lead to painful s£xual conditions when you attempt to have penetrative sex again.” If this is the case for you, Dr. Wiggins suggests seeing a pelvic floor physiotherapist for personal assessment, or “using Elvie or another pelvic floor trainer that will give you feedback on how to do exercises properly.”
2. You Can Develop Erectile Disfunction?
This is an interesting discovery, but possibly not one that’s welcome if you have a penis and you’re taking a bit of time off from intercourse. Abstinence seems to increase the likelihood of erectile dysfunction, as one 2008 study published in the American Journal of Medicine found. It focused on older people, but it seems that regular sexual activity has a positive effect on erections. Use it or lose it, as it were. (There’s also a possibility that regular ejaculations might help to avoid prostate cancer. But, you know, you can have those on your own.)
3. It Can Affect Your Immune System?
It seems as if s£xual activity contributes positively to your body’s immune function. (In people with uteruses, these changes appear to be geared toward making it easier to get pregnant.) The flip side, unfortunately, is that if you’re not getting busy regularly, then you’re not getting those benefits, and you may be ever so slightly more prone to illnesses and infections that your immune system would otherwise block.
That said, Dr. Jodie Horton, MD, a medical advisor at Love Wellness, a supplement company, says that there are many other ways to boost your immune system, including “meditation, yoga, getting eight hours of sleep, eating a healthy diet and staying physically active.”
4. Your Libido Decrease?
According to Dr. Wiggins, the “use it or lose it” theory has other applications. “S£x is not a drive that becomes more and more prominent without it – like hunger. S£x is a reward system, and when we’re having good s£x, we want more good s£x.” So if you don’t have s£x for an extended period, you can become “quite comfortable without having it at all,” Dr. Wiggins tells Bustle. One way to keep your s£x drive revving, if that’s what you’re after, according to Dr. Horton, is to masturbate. You can get that “same release of mood-boosting hormones.”
5. It Can Affect Your Mental & Physical Health?
This is another case in which the link between positives (regular s£x and stress-busting) becomes a negative (no s£x, ergo higher stress reactions). In a 2016 study published by the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, it was reported that good s£x seemed to protect women from heart conditions (like hypertension and rapid heart rate) later in life. All of those good feels that accompany a good romp do wonders for the heart. So, if you’ve been used to the stress-lowering pluses of s£x, then its absence might not have a good impact on your general ability to cope with anxious moments.
According to Dr. Wiggins, “people might feel more agitated than they’re used to feeling,” especially if they relied on s£x as a tool to unwind and relax. “S£x has complicated ties to mood, self-esteem, and releasing happy hormones like dopamine and oxytocin,” Dr. Wiggins adds, so if you’re noticing a decline in your mood and you think a lack of sex could be contributing, it’s important to “find other ways to boost the hormones that s£x usually does — exercise, call friends, take a bath.”
6. It Can Hurt Your Cardiovascular Health?
So we’ve established that good s£x life is strongly linked to cardiovascular health, and entering an s£x drought removes that hormonal and aerobic boost. But not a lot of work has been done on precisely what happens to the heart after some time without s£x. It may just be the case that if you take out your s£xual frustration on the treadmill, then your heart will end up healthier than it was before you stopped.
7. It Can Make It Hard To Get Wet?
It turns out that having regular s£x is a way of tuning up your s£xual organs, and that going without for a while means they’re a bit slow to start up. (And might need a bit of hand-cranking. OK, analogy over.) S£xual health experts point out that the lubrication process of arousal (wherein your vagina and vulva become “wet”) benefits from regularity, and if you stop for a while, you might need a bit of extra help in the arousal department when you get back in the saddle. But the possibility of this being a reality for you if you are not peri-menopausal and menopausal, according to Dr. Horton is slim. “S£x can increase lubrication and blood flow to the vagina, but this is more likely due to a decrease in estrogen associated with menopause and not due to lack of s£x,” she says.
8. Can Drastically Lower Your Risk Of UTIs And STIs?
At last, some good news. The STI part may not come as a surprise, but UTIs (urinary tract infections) are often caused by the transfer of bacteria to the urinary tract during s£x (particularly from the anus). So an s£x-free life will keep you secure. You can, however, get various STIs from nons£xual contact, so you’re not completely out of the woods.
9. It Can Make You Less Smart?
There’s an old wives’ tale that abstinence makes you more intelligent. The truth is the opposite: Scientists have demonstrated that s£xual activity boosts neuron growth in the brain’s hippocampus. Abstinence, it turns out, does not make the brain grow at all. Just because you’ve suddenly become immensely productive and completed a crossword for the first time in six weeks doesn’t mean your brain’s improving. Alas, it probably just means you’re bored.
CREDIT: Bustle.com
PHOTO CREDITS: Google
