Alcohol Consumption And Sex

Alcoholism can greatly affect the quality of your sex life. It is believed that small amounts of alcohol can actually help in getting you in the mood by reducing anxiety and stress levels, but if you consume large quantities of alcohol, your sex drive, libido and sexual performance may get adversely affected. It is very important to know when to say no more!

How Alcohol Consumption Affects Your Personal And Social Life?

• Alcohol consumption impairs judgment and decision making. For example, it has been observed that heavy alcohol consumption makes a person more vulnerable to make wrong decisions.
• Wrong choices can lead to hazardous consequences (such as you may end up sleeping with the wrong person and can easily catch sexually transmitted diseases or an undesirable pregnancy).
• When you are drunk, you are at a greater risk of becoming a victim of sexual attack.

In 2014, an ipsos-MORI survey of young people was carried out by the Family Planning Association. The investigators reported that one out of ten young survey respondents agree that they don’t remember with whom they have sex and what sort of sex they have after getting drunk. In addition, 28% young adults confessed that because of alcohol they had sex with people whom they don’t normally fancy. Furthermore due to effect of alcoholism many people forget to perform protected sex. Another 70% respondents agreed that they regret having sex and said that getting drunk was the reason.

‘Beer goggles’ is a term that is used to describe the distortion of vision and having wrong perception when you are heavily intoxicated. Heavy drinking greatly affects your perception capacity and makes you think that the opposite gender sitting next to you is very attractive and perfect to have sex with; but the next morning after the hangover, situation seems to be completely opposite! Although, little amount of alcohol can actually have good effects on your sex life but excessive drinking can ruin it.

It is imperative to mention that no amount of alcohol is safe for women who are looking to get pregnant any time soon. According to Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, drinking alcohol during pregnancy can aggravate the risk of fetal alcohol syndrome along with other complications such as early fetal demise, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and premature labor. Therefore, healthcare providers advice women not to drink alcohol especially before getting pregnant or during first three months of pregnancy.

Effects of alcohol on sex life can be categorized as ‘good effects’ and ‘bad effects’.

‘Good effects’

• A glass of wine or cocktail can make a person romantic. In other words, small quantities of alcohol acts as an aphrodisiac.
• Slight intoxication reduces shyness and make things easier for the couple to hit it off.
• Small quantities of alcohol helps in ice-breaking and enable people to interact with each other in a more friendly and healthy manner.
• Very small doses of alcohol can help in delaying the climax in a very anxious and nervous guy. Thus, minimizing the chances of premature ejaculation. But one should not consider alcohol as a treatment for this condition.

‘Bad effects’

• Alcohol can make you have sex with wrong person which can lead to sexually transmitted infections, undesirable pregnancy and marriage breakups as well. In 2015, alcoholism was the main reason for high demand of emergency contraceptives known as ‘morning-after pill’ on Saturday, Sunday and Monday mornings.
• Excessive drinking for longer time can cause erectile dysfunction. Many guys think that heavy drinking can make you have more passionate sex but in real it induces impotency in men.
• Heavy drinking can ultimately result in loss of interest in sex and permanent brewer’s droop, an alcohol induced impotency.
• Excessive alcohol consumption in women can aggravate the risk of metabolic issues. Clinical data also indicates that alcoholic women finds it more difficult to engage in satisfying sexual relationships and also develops poor libido and sex drive.

References:

1. Kahler, C. W., Wray, T. B., Pantalone, D. W., Kruis, R. D., Mastroleo, N. R., Monti, P. M., & Mayer, K. H. (2015). Daily associations between alcohol use and unprotected anal sex among heavy drinking HIV-positive men who have sex with men. AIDS and Behavior, 19(3), 422-430.

2. Ferris, J., Devaney, M., Davis, G., & Mazerolle, L. (2015). Reporting of Problematic Drinkers and the Harm They Cause: Assessing the Role of Alcohol Use, Sex, and Age of Those Affected by a Problematic Drinker. Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology.

3. Thompson, R. G., Eaton, N. R., Hu, M. C., Grant, B. F., & Hasin, D. S. (2014). Regularly drinking alcohol before sex in the United States: effects of relationship status and alcohol use disorders. Drug and alcohol dependence, 141, 167-170.