Going without sex for extended periods of time appears to have some negative health consequences. Your blood pressure and risk for prostate cancer might rise even as your immune system weakens.
Even if you’re married, it’s not always your decision about how often you have sex. Your partner may be sick, stressed, tired, away on business, or just not interested in nookie.
If the latter is the problem, you may want to show them this list. Just because they’re not in the mood doesn’t mean they won’t have sex for the health benefits, right?
Here are four things that can happen to your body if you don’t have sex regularly.
1. Your Blood Pressure May Rise
Sex is a great way to release stress. When you have an orgasm, the release of endorphins can boost your mood. Even if you don’t reach orgasm, just having sex can keep your blood pressure down. A study published in Biological Psychology showed that people who had sex regularly had lower blood pressure than those who didn’t.
2. You May Develop ED
Maybe it’s physical, maybe it’s performance anxiety, or perhaps it’s a combination of the two. But when men don’t have sex for a while, some can develop erectile dysfunction. A study published in The American Journal of Medicine found that men in their 50s, 60s, and 70s who weren’t sexually active were more likely to have erectile dysfunction.
If you end up developing erectile dysfunction after a long dry spell, don’t worry. Erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra tend to work for most men.
3. Prostate Cancer Risk Increases
If you’re not having sex (or at least masturbating) regularly, your risk for prostate cancer goes up. Ejaculating frequently appears to help keep prostate cancer at bay. (Treatment for prostate cancer also comes with a high risk of erectile dysfunction.)
4. Your Immune System May Weaken
When psychologists Francis Brennan Jr. and Carl Charnetski studied the saliva samples of people who were having sex once or twice a week, they discovered a new benefit to having sex: a stronger immune system. The saliva samples they examined had extremely high concentrations of immunoglobin A, an antibody known to fight off the common cold.
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