Obesity and Sexual Quality of Life

Obesity can impact your life adversely, affecting the quality of life, with poor sexual health being one of the consequences. As far as sexual health is concerned, it results in infertility, reduced sexual quality and creates conception problems among women.

Obesity and Sexual Life

Research reveals that overweight and obesity may cause pubertal changes in the body. While in teenage girls, obesity advances puberty, it delays the same in boys. An obese child may experience alterations in leptin and insulin levels. A French survey conducted to investigate the impact of overweight or obesity on sexual behavior and health finds that unplanned pregnancy is more common among obese women, while fat men are more at the risk of erectile dysfunction and have lower testosterone.The primary male sex hormone, testosterone, is responsible for the development of male sexual organs and sperm production and libido. Obesity in men has been linked to reduced sperm motility and low sperm counts, which affect fertility and make a man less fertile.

Obesity and Sexuality

If you are overweight, it can directly affect testosterone level in your body, resulting in erectile dysfunction. Not only this, obesity and sexual health is linked in a way that the former exposes you to other lifestyle diseases, including high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes, all of which damage and constrict blood vessels, affecting the blood flow in the penis and thus contributing to erectile dysfunction. If the penis does not get adequate blood supply, it cannot become erect and engorged.The body converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, which contributes to the growth of prostate. With the onset of puberty, testosterone levels begin to rise, reaching a peak in early adulthood and gradually decline with age. In an obese male, testosterone levels are negatively affected. Research reveals that any slight increase in body mass index in men over 40 years of age caused a 2 percent decrease in testosterone. Studies further reveal that even a 4-inch increase in waist size in a 30-year-old man raises the risk of a reduction in testosterone by 75 percent.

BMI and Sexuality

Research links obesity and sexual quality of life in men, claiming that a man with a BMI of 28 was at a higher risk of developing erectile dysfunction. Low frequency of intercourse is another consequence of obesity in men. Obese men are often found to run out of steam even before completion of the act. Not only this, obesity affects the self-esteem of men, since fat in the abdominal area tends to make the penis look smaller than its actual size.With loss of weight, symptoms tend to become less intense that otherwise impair the sexual quality of life.