Women who do not have sexual intercourse face a higher risk of early death... What about men?

Higher Frequency of Sexual Activity Reduces Severity of Depression
Excessive Sexual Activity Increases Mortality Risk in Men

A study found that women who do not have sexual intercourse have a 70% higher risk of premature death compared to women who have sex at least once a week. In men, however, excessively frequent sexual intercourse was associated with a higher risk of death.

The New York Post reported on the 28th of last month that researchers from Walden University in Minnesota, USA, recently published these findings in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

The research team investigated the relationship between sexual frequency and mortality among 14,542 adults aged 20 to 59 using data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2005 to 2010. They tracked all causes of death, depression, and sexual frequency of participants until December 2015, particularly examining whether there was a correlation between mortality and sexual frequency among those having sex once a week or less versus those having sex more than once a week.

Among the participants, 95% had sexual intercourse 12 times a year, and 38% reported having sex at least once a week.

It was also confirmed that younger participants tended to have sex more frequently. Participants with lower sexual frequency had higher levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), an inflammation marker, and had no history of smoking. They also tended to have higher education levels and were more likely to suffer from depression.

Dr. Srikanta Banerjee, the study's author, stated, "People with higher sexual frequency experienced fewer harmful effects of depression and less severe depression." Among those having sex once a week or less who suffered from depression, the risk of death was 197% higher compared to those with depression who had sex more than once a week.

However, among those having sex more than once a week, there was no association between sexual frequency and mortality risk. This suggests that having sex once a week could be a threshold for obtaining sexual health benefits.

When considering sexual frequency, the increased risk of death from all causes during the follow-up period was observed only in female participants. This was not the case for males. Dr. Banerjee analyzed, "The reason sexual intercourse may be more effective is that depression has a more severe impact on women."

However, the research team explained that "men with excessively high sexual frequency may have a sixfold increase in mortality risk compared to women," indicating that frequent sexual intercourse is not necessarily beneficial.