Obesity not only leads to lifestyle diseases like diabetes, heart disease, cancer but also can dampen your sex life. It can lead to lack of sexual stamina, sexual dysfunction and hormonal imbalance.
Also the medicines you take for various diseases like diabetes, heart disease and hypertension can lead to lack of libido and erectile dysfunction among other sex-related problems. Here are the top ten ways obesity can harm your sex life:
Erectile dysfunction
Obese men are far likelier to suffer from erectile dysfunction (ED) or impotency. Problems associated with obesity like high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes prevent efficient blood flow to all parts of the body including the penis, thus causing issues with erection. Various studies have shown that even losing a little amount of weight can help beat the condition.
Hormonal imbalance leading to low libido
Obesity is directly linked to hormonal imbalance and lower testosterone levels, which in turn can inhibit sexual desires in both men and women. Another issue is that increased body fat leads to more sex hormone binding globulins (SHBG) in the system. SHBG is a natural chemical that binds to testosterone, which means that there is less of the sex hormone left to handle the demands of a normal sex life. In women, obesity leads to abnormalities in their eggs that make them harder to fertilise pregnancies and miscarriages than regular weighing ones.
In men, obesity is directly linked to infertility because of the way it affects sperm. Research has found that men who consume a fatty diet have lower quality of sperm.
Obesity-related diseases that hinder sex
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People who are heavy, particularly in the central abdomen area tend to suffer from a host of diseases which can affect their sex lives in various ways. This can be due to physiological or psychological reasons or due to medicines taken for the disease. Diabetes, heart disease, cancer, hypertension, depression, dementia and other ailments all affect your sexual functioning.
Buried penis syndrome
Folds of abdominal fat and skin in obese men make the penis look rather small or even ‘buried’ at times. Called the ‘buried penis syndrome’, it can seriously hamper sex lives. This however, should not be confused with the ‘micropenis’ which is a condition where the erect penis measures less than 3 inches. This is mostly a congenital disorder in children and can affect around 0.6% of the male population.
STDs and unwanted pregnancies
Since obese people are likely to have less sex than the others, they are likelier to exhibit high-risk sexual behaviour. An American study found that obese women were four times likelier to have unplanned pregnancies because they re less likely to be prepared for intercourse.
Fewer sex positions possible
Sadly, the sheer logistics of sex can change when one or both partners are fat and can make coitus in some positions particularly hard. The popular missionary position is out-of-bounds if the male partner is too heavy. And if both partners are obese, then the central abdominal area can prevent proper penetration.
Low self-esteem, depression and other conditions
Various studies have shown obese people are far likelier to suffer from depression and other mental health problems which reduce libido and are likely to cause sexual dysfunction.
Lack of stamina
Obesity is often associated with laziness and a sedentary lifestyle. And this may often percolate into their sex lives as well. In men, it will also significantly decrease the time they can maintain an erection.
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