Watching porn may help improve sex life, but harmful in excess

Pornography use is common among young men and is often seen to have positive impacts on their sex life, a recent study has found. However, frequent use may also lead to greater dissatisfaction with sex life and sexual health problems.

Researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 14,135 adults (aged 16–84 years, 7,966 women), in whom pornography use was divided into five frequency categories: never, ≤1–3 times/month, 1–2 times/week, 3–5 times/week, and daily or almost daily. The impacts of pornography use on sexual satisfaction and sexual health problems were assessed.

Pornography use was prevalent in the overall sample, but much more so in men than in women (68.7 percent vs 27.0 percent). Among men aged 16–24 years, daily or almost daily use of pornography was reported in 17.2 percent, while frequencies of 3–5 and 1–2 times/week were documented in 24.7 percent and 23.7 percent, respectively.

The corresponding rates of use in women were much lower: 1.2 percent for daily or almost daily, 3.1 percent for 3–5 times/week, and 8.6 percent for 1–2 times/week. In both sexes, frequency of pornography use decreased with age.

Notably, 22.6 percent of men and 15.4 percent of women said that their or their partner’s use of pornography had predominantly positive impacts on their sex life. On the other hand, 4.7 percent and 4.0 percent, respectively, pegged such impacts as predominantly negative.

Logistic regression analysis, however, revealed that pornography use ≥3 times/week correlated significantly with dissatisfaction with sex life (men: age-adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.90, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 2.40–3.51; women: aOR, 1.85, 95 percent CI, 1.09–3.16) and not having sex in the preferred way (aOR, 2.48, 95 percent CI, 1.92–3.20; women: aOR, 3.59, 95 percent CI, 2.00–6.42).