Let’s say an individual (male or female) chooses – for ethical, religious, or other reasons – a life of celibacy. What are some of the methods or techniques available that could help him or her not only **have **intercourse less, but also **want **it less?
So things like chastity belts are presumably excluded since they prohibit the act but don’t (AFAIK) lessen the desire, but everything else should be fair game. Are there surgical techniques? Medication? Meditation? Mental reprogramming? Lobotomies?
If you were a man, “Chemical castration” with Depo-Provera would technically be an option, though in practice it would be hard to obtain for those purposes.
I have to admit that I am not aware of any consistent way to decrease the female libido. Women are just way too complicated, man.
A friend from high school entered a monastery after college. He said that there was no real effort on his part to reduce or eliminate his sexual desires. Religious study and an understanding of the kind of life he was preparing for were enough to suppress his sex drive. Of course he was never the kind in high school or college to chase skirts so YMMV.
If all else fails try wedding cake. It reduced my wife’s sex drive :D.
Marriage does nothing to suppress my sex drive (or anyone else’s who I’ve had these kinds of discussion with). Sure, the drive to bang my wife is reduced, but the need for sex? As bad as it ever were. Witness adultery stats, or the prevalent use of sexual services by married men. Or the stains on my LCD screen.
For SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), anorgasmia and reduced libido are common side effects. However, there’s no guarantee that a given person will experience a given side effect and it’s possible to get the anorgasmia without the reduced libido. I know this from painful personal experience.
SSRIs gave me both anorgasmia and decreased libido. I didn’t realize it until a friend pointed it out to me one day when I was flipping through TV channels.
Me, surfing the TV: “Wheel of Fortune, Seinfeld, Football, Simpsons, Naked Breasts, Cooking Channel…”
Friend: “Whoa dude, breasts! Back on channel 32!”
Me: “Oh yeah, I guess so. Cooking channel, MTV, lifetime, back to Wheel…”
But still, when the mood hit (or I had a full “tank”), anorgasmia is a bitch–forty five minutes and nothing but a swollen member. It’d be great if I was a worked in porn, though.
Thread hijack-- actually, it wouldn’t be. As I understand it (industry blogs, interviews, etc.) half the requirement to be a successful male porn star is being able to hit the “money shot” on demand.
Apparently, the growing use of Viagra, Cialis, etc. as “crutches” for the male talent has changed the dynamics of the industry. It has allowed for the, ummm, explosion of male actors seen in recent years.
In decades past, you’d see a new girl a day (with the occasional female superstars in the mix), but the male talent would be a relatively small group of men, most of whom shared three things in common: an ability to get it up on a set, an ability to keep it up on a set, and an ability to fire off on a director’s cue. Any deviation from this ability to perform would negatively influence an actor’s reputation, and eventually harm their ability to get work.
Today, with chemical erection enhancement, any regular guy can perform at least two of the previous three requirements without much of a problem. That last bit-- reaching climax on demand-- apparently remains a problem, however, for the Viagra crowd.
Fascinating stuff (to me, at least). Porn is a weird, weird industry.
