The relationship between marijuana use and sexual activity is not yet clear, but a large study led by researcher Michael Eisenberg of the Stanford University School of Medicine in California (USA) strongly suggests that the Regular cannabis use can increase sexual desire . The findings have been published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.
“The use of marijuana is very common, but its use on a large scale and its association with sexual frequency has not been studied much in a scientific way,” says Eisenberg.
In previous research, experiments with rats found that the active compound in marijuana causes fluctuations in sexual desire. However, more recent studies suggest that endocannabinoids increase sexual arousal in women , and that the drug improves the sexual experience for both men and women.
In order to gain a better understanding of the impact of marijuana on sexual function, experts examined data from the National Survey of Family Growth , a large-scale investigation conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (CDC) on fertility, motherhood, family life, marriage, divorce and men and women’s health.
Studying marijuana use and sexual frequency
The survey included questions about the frequency of sexual intercourse and marijuana use. More specifically, 28,176 heterosexual women and 22,943 heterosexual men were questioned about how many times they had had sex in the past 4 weeks, as well as how often they had used marijuana in the past 12 months.
Participants were between 25 and 45 years old, women were 29.9 years old, and men were 29.5 years old, on average. The researchers included data that had been collected since 2002 and adjusted for potential confounders such as the use of other drugs such as cocaine or alcohol.
Overall, 24.5% of men and 14.5% of women reported having used marijuana in the past 12 months. Experts noted an association between how often people smoked marijuana and how often they had sex. More specifically, people who used marijuana had 20% more sex than those who did not use it, and this applied to both genders.
Women who abstained from using marijuana in the past year reported having sex six times, on average, in the past 4 weeks, while for marijuana users, this number was 7.1 times.
Men who abstained from marijuana had sex 5.6 times in the past 4 weeks, while men who used the drug daily had sex an average of 6.9 times in this time.
“The general trend we saw applied to people of both genders and all races, ages, education levels, income groups and religions, all health states, whether they were married or single and had children or not.” Eisenberg explains.
Despite these strong associations, the authors caution that this study does not prove causation. “It doesn’t say that if you smoke more marijuana, you will have more sex,” he says.
However, the overall message from this research is clear: “Frequent marijuana use does not appear to affect sexual motivation or performance. If anything, it is associated with increased frequency of intercourse,” Eisenberg concludes.
Reference: Association Between Marijuana Use and Sexual Frequency in the United States: A Population-Based Study. Andrew J. Sun, Michael L. Eisenberg, Journal of Sexual Medicine 2017 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2017.09.005
