Obesity takes a toll on sexual health

It is well known that obesity raises one’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and certain types of cancer, among other health problems. But how does it affect one’s sex life? Leave it to the French to provide the answer.

In a study to be published online Wednesday in the British Medical Journal, researchers from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine report that obese men and women have more health issues related to sex than people of normal weight. Using data collected during lengthy phone interviews with more than 10,000 French adults, they found that:

• Compared with women of normal weight, obese women were 30% less likely to have had a sexual partner in the previous year.
• Obese women in their late teens and 20s were three times as likely to have met a sexual partner online and twice as likely to have watched a pornographic movie.
• Among women in their late teens and 20s, obese women were four times more likely than normal-weight women to report an unintended pregnancy or an abortion.
• Perhaps this was because they were 70% less likely to use birth control pills and eight times more likely to rely on “less effective methods, such as withdrawal.”

As for the guys:

• Compared with men of normal weight, obese men were 70% less likely to have had more than one sexual partner in the previous year (but equally likely to have had at least one).
• Obese men were more than twice as likely than normal-weight men to have experienced erectile dysfunction in the previous year.
• Among men in their late teens and 20s, the odds of contracting a sexually transmitted disease in the previous five years were more than 10 times greater for obese men than for men of normal weight.

“The study lends a new slant to a familiar message: that obesity can harm not only health and longevity, but your sex life,” concludes an editorial that accompanies the study.

-- Karen Kaplan

Photo: Carrying around extra pounds can put a damper on your sex life, researchers say. Credit: iStockphoto

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Comments

[DearLizzie]

All the problems are self esteem issues, not directly related to obesity. Our culture's view of obesity as the last acceptable area of bigotry is at fault here, not excess pounds.

[La Zuzu]

Excusez-moi, did you say that obese men are more than twice as likely to have had one sex partner in the last year than "normal-weight" men? You think I'm smoke-screening? Do the math! They're having more ED and more STDs because they're having more sex! Yeah, I said it!
(Lame report, LATimes. What got corrected for and what didn't? Could you get a scientist to comment on the validity of the study?)

[Krista]

So true. I slowly gained weight over the past 10 years, until I got up to 180 pounds. At that point, I was NOT interested in physical intimacy with my husband unless ALL the lights were O.U.T. and even then, he wasn't allowed to touch my chubbyness... ewww! Please note, my hubby absolutely dotes over me... he REALLY didn't care... but I did! I finally decided I had to do something... so I started working out at home with some pretty popular workout dvds and lost 36 pounds. I have more energy AND my sexual drive is BACK!!! The lights are ON!!! WooHoo! You can do it too! Decide. Commit. Succeed. :)

[Tee]

It is NOT entirely a self esteem issue. There are physicality issues with agility, mobility and endurance. If you think for ONE minute that a 400lb person can perform as well sexually as a fit individual, you are seriously fooling yourself Lizzie Dear.
Please.

[SMG]

Why the line about the pornographic movie? What does that have to do with adverse effects on sexual health exactly?

[Joe]

Apparently fat women are stupid and irresponsible.

[Diz Pareunia]

Fat people less likely to get laid!
Alert the media!
Oh, I forgot - you ARE the media.

[tlzoumer]

Not a shocker at all. If you can't walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded there's no way you're lasting more than a few minutes in the bedroom. Self esteem aside (everyone should feel beautiful), it's a basic health issue. When you're body feels good, you feel good.

[PAUL OLIVAS]

that's the french, we're all a bunch of happy slobs over here . :)

[Doris]

At this rate we're going to end up like male American turkeys...

[Danny]

While I am all for good scientific research and conducting studies gives us data that descrip corrlations and other pheonomena i belive the findings of these study should be appropriately published in the “No S@i# !” Journal.

[maggie in LA]

why do people want to defend their being overweight?! i just don't get it.

and hello, people of any weight who don't engage in protected sex will end up with a little something extra than what they bargained for.

just lose the weight people. i'm tired of seeing articles trying to convince people to slim down by showing every malady it could be contributing to!

and yes, if you're overweight it's more than likely you're not putting yourself out there. DUH, that's a low self esteem issue. (no matter how much overweight people claim to love their excess weight!) this article is not full of bigotry, that's a laugh.

[woof-woof]

"Excusez-moi, did you say that obese men are more than twice as likely to have had one sex partner in the last year than "normal-weight" men?"

No.

[woof-woof]

"Excusez-moi, did you say that obese men are more than twice as likely to have had one sex partner in the last year than "normal-weight" men?"

No.

[Goofus]

In RE: to the obese men in the study: I'm still trying to wrap my head around if someone is 70% less likely to have more than 1 sexual partner, but 10x more prone to sexual diseases, then what pool are these partners that cater to obese men coming from?

[Kim]

good information