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In broad terms, sex abstinence is a personal decision people make to prevent themselves from having intercourse. But just like most other things, it can have a different meaning for different people. Some view it as a decision to entirely avoid any form of intimate activity, while others engage only in outercourse, avoiding vaginal and anal sex.

 

Although the meaning of abstinence is personal, you might want to consider how it can affect your body and personal relationships. Therefore, we’re going to let you in on some gripping cons of choosing to abstain from sexual intercourse.

Builds Up Anxiety and Insecurity

It’s normal not to have sex on your mind when you feel under the weather or stressed out. However, engaging in sexual activities can help a lot with feeling anxious. The thing is, oral sex, anal, and vaginal intercourse are all great ways to reduce hormones that our brains release while feeling anxious. Moreover, sex activities produce happy hormones, including:

• dopamine
• oxytocin
• serotonin

 

But that’s not all. Lack of healthy sex life often leads to insecurity and functional problems later on. Once you decide to get back to it again, you might not feel as confident about your skills in the sack as you did before. But that is normal. It’s simply due to being on the sidelines for too long.

 

However, both men and women might experience functional difficulties. For example, the female vaginal tissue can thin out, shrink, and even dry without regular sex. On the other hand, men who choose abstinence have a higher risk of experiencing erectile dysfunction later in life. They might also experience prostate difficulties too.

No Stress Outlet

Sexual abstinence can also result in having no stress outlet. In turn, this leads to less sleep and aches and pains that keep hanging around. Namely, without regular sex, your body will be unable to produce hormones that allow us to go to sleep easier and get enough rest (prolactin, oxytocin, etc.). Luckily, this can all change once you start enjoying carnal pleasures once more.

 

When it comes to aches and pains, sex is a great way to take your mind off them. What is more, intercourse again helps to produce endorphins that reduce pain levels. These boys are pretty helpful for headaches, back stiffness, and leg cramps. Furthermore, they make arthritis and menstrual cycles much more bearable too.

 

We all know how regular exercise is great for stress relief. Sex is, in some ways, just another way of physical exercise. Normal plowing can burn up to five calories per minute. If we translate this into training language, it’s almost equal to taking a brisk walk.

 

Although this might not seem like much, it keeps adding up over time. Hence, avoiding sex for a long time is like saying that you’re going to stay locked onto your couch, eat fast food, and binge TV shows for the rest of your life.

Intimacy Fades in Relationships

Sexual relationships aren’t just about being naughty and kinky for the sake of doing it. In fact, there’s a lot of chemistry going on in our brains before, during, and after intercourse. Namely, after getting down with our partners, our brains experience an “explosion” of chemicals that make us bond with our lovers even more.

 

If you, unfortunately, decide not to have sex, your and your partner’s brains will stop experiencing these hefty doses of bonding chemicals. Furthermore, this will result in both of you feeling less and less attached to each other. Some studies suggest that the happiest couples are the ones that make it in bed at least once or twice a week.

 

Of course, some relationships can work without sexual intercourse, but they’re few and far between. Those two days we’ve mentioned are all about bonding and growing trust between partners on an unconscious level. You don’t have to think about how you care, trust, or love someone — your brain will do it for you in the background. This is, however, lost if you practice abstinence.

Slows Down Brain Functions

It’s not uncommon for people who abstain from sex to suffer from bad memory. For example, if you don’t do it regularly, you might experience tiny problems like forgetting where your car keys are, where you put your wallet, and so on.

 

These instances can, over time, turn into more severe issues. Some studies suggest that there’s a close bond between healthy sex life and improved memory. This is especially true in the later years of your life. Unfortunately, there’s no clear answer to why this happens, so it’s maybe better to keep doing it.

Lowers Immune System

Sexual health is closely related to the overall state of your immune system. Doing it week in, week out is a great way to boost your body’s natural defense towards viruses and bacteria. This is especially important nowadays when we’re going through a global pandemic of a virus that doesn’t seem to choose its target.

 

One of the reasons why a strong immune system is in a close relationship with sex is that intercourse helps raise immunoglobulin. This substance is what our body uses to fight off germs and viruses. Still, more sex won’t make you invincible. It can, actually, do quite the opposite. So, keeping things to once or twice a week will be just enough if you want to have a healthy immune system.

 

Of course, all these reasons that we’ve mentioned don’t have to be indispensable for you if you simply don’t feel like having sex. It’s, after all, your choice at the end of the day. There are actual benefits of abstinence, including lowering the risk of sexually transmitted infections, preventing unwanted pregnancy, and much more. Therefore, we can say that abstaining from sex is like some sort of trade-off, if you will.