October 27, 2017
Smoking marijuana regularly leads to more sex, according to researchers at Stanford University.
Results of a study conducted by at school of medicine likely contradict concerns held by many doctors and scientists that frequent marijuana use may impair sexual desire or performance.
The findings, to be published online Thursday in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, are based on an analysis of more than 50,000 Americans between the ages of 25 and 45. And they're unambiguous.
"Frequent marijuana use doesn't seem to impair sexual motivation or performance. If anything, it's associated with increased coital frequency," the study's senior author, Michael Eisenberg, M.D., assistant professor of urology, said in a news release.
And while the study does not establish a causal connection between marijuana use and sexual activity, the results do hint at it, he added.
"The overall trend we saw applied to people of both sexes and all races, ages, education levels, income groups and religions, every health status, whether they were married or single and whether or not they had kids," Eisenberg said.
As marijuana becomes more acceptable in the United States as a recreational drug, there are reports of erectile dysfunction and reduced sperm counts among male heavy users. But experiments indicate that marijuana stimulates activity in brain regions involved in sexual arousal and activity, the researchers point out.
The study is the first to examine the relationship between marijuana use and frequency of sexual intercourse at the population level in the United States.
Data was collected by a survey asking respondents on how many times they've had intercourse with a member of the opposite sex in the past four weeks, and how frequently they've smoked marijuana over the past 12 months.
Findings indicate that pot users are having about 20 percent more sex than pot abstainers, Eisenberg noted. Moreover, the positive association between marijuana use and coital frequency was not related to demographic, health, marital or parental status.
But, Eisenberg cautioned, the study "doesn't say if you smoke more marijuana, you'll have more sex."
