Then why don’t you put out that cigarette! Researchers have found that smoking can significantly diminish sexual desire, performance, and satisfaction. And this holds true even for young smokers in their 20s and 30s! According to one study, male smokers reported having sex less than six times a month, whereas nonsmokers were having sex nearly twice as often. There are so many good health reasons to quit, but isn’t good sex a great reason, too?
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When Neeraj Patel was a 27-year-old teacher in Ahmedabad he had been smoking for about a year and noticed the fire in his love life was no longer raging.
“Sex was suddenly getting boring,” he says. “I didn’t want to have it. I would get out of breath so easily, and I simply felt gross.” While he averaged only half a pack a day, he often smoked much more on the weekends. The effects were not good.
He stopped smoking, started exercising, and began to eat right. After the changes, he had a much greater interest in sex and enjoys it more than ever.
Being able to dump the cigarettes is a real accomplishment — especially when you consider how smoking can become intertwined with the intimacy of a relationship. Last year, for example, researchers at the University of Arizona began to study couples where at least one member of the relationship smoked.
The investigators began to realize that smoking actually became a method of subtle communication for members of the couples being studied. Lighting up gave clues to each partner that it was time to talk, time to give space, or even time to defend yourself because a world-class argument was about to begin.
The federally funded study is scheduled to go on for another year, and hopefully, will provide methods to help counsel couples how to recognize cigarettes as an abusive third member of their relationship. If couples are going to weed the habit from their lives, the researchers say they will have to find other ways to relate to each other, and more often than just during the familiar after-sex smoke.
And of course, as Sannidhya Institute & Research Centre, Ahmedabad found, smoking can directly torpedo the sex, too. Smoking has a direct, negative effect on the sexuality of a man on every level.
From their work with couples being treated for infertility, Dr Archana Shah, consultant Gynecologist and Infertility & IVF Specialist, SAL hospital & Rajasthan hospital, Ahmedabad have found that men’s smoking had a significant and negative effect on the ability to conceive. But they also turned up a surprise: Smoking significantly diminished a man’s sexual desire and satisfaction — even for young men in their 20s and 30s.
The smokers reported having sex less than six times a month, whereas the nonsmoking men were having sex nearly twice as often. This difference is especially significant considering that these couples were actively trying to conceive. We are trying to identify how and why tobacco use negatively impacts men’s sexual performance. In my clinical experience, it does decrease performance. Sexual performance is more than just erectile function; it involves many of the systems of the body. But when a man’s ability to have sex decreases, his appetite for sex will generally follow.
When diminished desire is combined with impaired performance, overall satisfaction is likely to suffer. When asked to rate their satisfaction with the sex they were having on a scale of 1 to 10, nonsmoking couples averaged 8.7, while couples with male smokers fared far worse with an average of only 5.2. There’s no doubt in my mind that nearly any man’s sexual satisfaction and frequency [of having sex] would increase if he stopped smoking.
Smoking causes damage to smooth muscle inside the penis that interferes with erectile functioning. So if men can’t perform as well, it would make sense that their libidos would suffer. There are so many factors in sexuality. Smoking is just one. Still, I don’t think it’s outlandish to say that refraining from smoking will benefit your sex life.
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by
Dr Paras Shah
Chief Consultant Sexologist & Infertility Specialist
SAL Hospital
Rajasthan Hospital
www.s4sq.com
Posts by SpeakBindas Editorial Team.
Dear Dr. Shah,
Indeed a great article. Apart from negative effects on sex life, it has other health related effects too, but “sex” is something which is important subject for teens and youth, and this might become a reason for them to quit smoking.
sex is something which is important subject for teens and youth, and this might become a reason for them to quit smoking.
My Fiance has no stamina & his penis is not being tight for more time. I can’t tell him this, He’s poor & he is always being shy to girls. I just don’t understand how I tell him this that he can’t satisfy me, I can’t even break this relationship by saying this reason, so the point is is there any medicine to make him strong without side effects? Please doctor reply me, I’m in trouble by this social thing. It’s so frustrating. Reply me as soon as possible.