Women who abstain from sex may be putting their health in jeopardy, a group of scientists have warned.
The researchers found that females between the ages of 20 and 59 who had sex less than once a week were at a 70 per cent increased risk of death within five years.
Blood samples showed these women had elevated levels of a key protein linked to inflammation, which can cause damage to healthy cells, tissues and organs.
Lower levels, and no increased death risk, was seen in participants who had sex more than once a week.
And alarmingly, the reverse phenomenon was seen in men—those who had the most sex were almost most at risk of early death—experts behind the study added.
The team concluded that, in women at least, ‘sexual expression, which is quantitatively measured through sexual frequency, is an essential component of both physical and mental health.
They added: ‘Sexual activity is important for overall cardiovascular health possibly due to reduction of heart rate variability and blood flow increase.’
The study’s authors, medical researchers at Walden University in Pennsylvania, used a giant database from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for the study.
Women who abstain from sex may be putting their health in jeopardy, a group of scientists have claimed
National survey data including information on depression, obesity, ethnicity and reports of sexual activity from 14,542 men and women were pooled for their analysis.
Also included in the database were answers to the question: ‘In the past 12 months, about how many times have you had vaginal or anal sex?’
The options included: never, once, two to 11 times, 12 to 51 times, 52 to 103 times, 104 to 364 times, and 365 times or more in the past 12 months.
The reports showed that about 95 percent of participants had sex more than 12 times per year, with 38 percent doing it once a week or more.
The team then compared this medical information with another CDC database on deaths up to the end of the year 2015 — which they double-checked against US National Death Index (NDI) death certificate records for those years.
‘Participants who were not matched with death records were considered to be alive through the follow-up period,’ the team shared in their study, published in the Journal of Psychosexual Health.
In one slice of the data, the team found that increased risk of death leapt upward a stunning 197 percent for individuals who reported low sexual frequency and depression over just depression alone.
‘Individuals with depression but high sexual frequency don’t feel harmful effects of depression as much,’ lead author Dr Srikanta Banerjee told MailOnline.
The researchers found that females between the ages of 20 and 59 who had sex less than once a week were at a 70 per cent increased risk of death within five years
But this finding also skewed along gender lines, he noted: ‘What we found is that, among females only, there is a beneficial effect.’
‘The theory,’ Dr Banerjee explained, ‘would be that depression affects men in different ways than females.’
‘Depression is something that leads to more increased mortality due to health outcomes,’ the former CDC researcher said. ‘So perhaps sex is more effective because of the severity of how depression impacts females.’
‘There are multiple theories,’ Dr Banerjee noted for this apparent link.
| Age | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| 18-24 | 58% | 68% |
| 25-29 | 61% | 77% |
| 30-34 | 73% | 75% |
| 35-39 | 59% | 63% |
| 40-44 | 63% | 64% |
| 45-49 | 55% | 69% |
| 50-54 | 52% | 53% |
| 55-59 | 53% | 47% |
| 60-64 | 46% | 33% |
| 65-69 | 49% | 32% |
| 70-74 | 50% | 23% |
| 75+ | 49% | 21% |
| Percentages are how many have had sex in the last three weeks | ||
‘For instance, sex releases endorphins that may prevent severe health outcomes.’
But, regardless of race, gender, age and most other health factors, his team emphasized that relatively regular sex seems to be beneficial for most adults.
‘Sexual activity is important for overall cardiovascular health, possibly due to reduction of heart rate variability and blood flow increase,’ the researchers noted.
But the new study added an interesting twist for oversexed men: there really is too much of a good thing.
‘With high sexual frequency,’ the researchers wrote, ‘males were six times more likely to experience increased mortality than females.’
This six-fold increase in death risk for men who truly ‘get around’ proved true despite the study’s use of a multiple complex statistical weights — including Cox regression models — to help cancel out other health, behavioral and demographic factors.
‘This shows that sexual frequency interacts with gender to increase mortality,’ the researchers concluded in their study.
‘The implications are that by addressing sexual frequency, other health disparities can be addressed more directly.’
