I know it is certainly possible for humans to live out their lives without romantic, sexual contact. We see this with most priests, nuns and monks. People spend decades incarcerated in prison without sexual contact and they live on.
There are people who are asexual, involuntary celibate who for varying reasons don’t have a sexual partner thought they desire so, and lastly those voluntarily are celibate even though they have a sex drive.
That being said, it is suffice to say that for most of us it would not be easy to go through our entire adult lives with any romantic/sexual contact. For a certain period of time yes, but a lifetime? I don’t think so.
Most of us for better or worse will have sex throughout our lives. But I am curious to see if there can be possible health effects stemming from no sexual contact over long periods of time.
Most what I have read on the internet seems that people who are sexually frustrated seem to fall into depression and tend to be angry. But nothing more from what I have found. I know it won’t lead to organ failure:D, and I’m guessing most researchers have not really done much research to find out.
Seems to me that the people who feel a desire for it but who can’t get it would be the ones who’d suffer negative health effects. Unfulfilled desires and unhappiness tend to do this.
If there are problems associated with lack of sexual contact, I’m thinking it would be more correlative than causation. Someone who is already sick is probably not in the mood for sex. Someone who can’t acquire sexual partners because he or she is socially inept probably faces a number of adversities (poor employment, poor social networks) that predispose them to health problems. And as much as it pains me to say this, not wanting to have sex may also be a warning sign. Low libido may indicate a hormone imbalance, which may indicate an underlying health issue. Someone who lacks the desire for sex may have a underlying psychiatric disorder. People with some psychiatric disorders are especially vulnerable to health problems.
Perhaps the reason why would have to be looked at. If the person desires sex and is unable to get sex it does show that there is other issues which may or may not be harmful.
I think it might be difficult to disentangle the effects (positive or negative) of never having sex from the effects (p. or n.) of never having an intimate conjugal relationship - i.e. never being married, or being in a marriage-like relationship. The two things will often go together.
For what it’s worth, never-married men (some of whom, presumably also never or rarely have sex) die younger than men who marry. But never-married women live longer than women who marry. And people of both sexes who marry multiple times die younger than those of the same sex who marry only once.
Hard to know what to make of all this, but my guess would be that this has less to do with the health effects of regular, rare or no sexual intercourse and more to do with the stresses we experience in, and the supports we receive from, our close relationships.
And worse still, this very effect is self-perpetuating and self-magnifying. If there’s one thing a miserable and depressed person is NOT, it’s fun to be with. Once one falls into the kind of pit that PSXer describes here, it’s very hard to dig oneself out.
Lifelong celibates (or near-celibates) don’t get to have their fix of oxytocin.
Everybody should stop right here for a moment and read up on oxytocin, the so-called “love drug”, manufactured in the brain in response to intimate encounters. Apparently something akin to a naturally-occurring opioid, this seems to be why being in love causes people to feel euphoric (but also dysphoric when you get jilted and start having withdrawal problems).
So instead of giving love-starved depressed people prescriptions of lame anti-depressant SSRI’s and vacuous pep-talks about how there’s someone for everyone if you just wait long enough, why not deal directly and make oxytocin pills for these people? Maybe even make it an OTC drug you can get at the corner store. Oh no, our society never allows it to be that easy!
So-called “self love” is commonly seen to be recommended for guys who can’t get laid, as if that actually solves anything.
Sitting home alone jerking off may be useful for “cleaning out the pipes” and it might, y’know, actually feel good, but I don’t think you get your oxytocin fix doing that. It is no substitute at all for love, companionship, affection, and sex.
My dog came sans-gonads from the shelter. He seems perfectly fine except he sometimes humps a soccer ball. I wonder if Catholic priests have soccer balls?
Had this started in General Questions, it might have had a possibility of soliciting some genuine information. At this point, I doubt that a serious thread will develop. On the other hand, this is not a debate.
We’ll try IMHO.
I’d heard this before, and wonder if it is another “correlation vs. causation” thing. The class of “never-married men” would intrinsically include those who died young, but would have married if they hadn’t, weighting the average downward. Conversely the class of “never-married women” would include a lower proportion of women who have gone through childbirth with all the risks and complications thereof.