New research highlights health benefits of having sex

Enter any residence hall on a weekend night and you’re bound to hear jokes about sex.

Senior Chris Hanlin said he still remembers the guys on his floor in Ashton Residence Center joking about burning calories and having a good cardio workout.

“The guy next to me came out of his room and was like ‘I lost another five pounds having sex with my girlfriend this week,’” Hanlin said.

These types of jokes are frequently heard around campus, but a soon-to-be released article in the Journal of Sexual Medicine supports these claims with medical research detailing the possible health benefits of sex. In addition to burning calories and lowering stress, the study claims frequent sex could result in other benefits including a lower risk of breast and prostate cancers.

Through several decades of study, researcher Stuart Brody concluded that the most health benefits are limited to penile-vaginal intercourse, according to CNN.com.

But despite the study and its findings, junior Amy Smith said she thinks most students will continue to make their own decisions when it comes to engaging in sexual activity.

“You’re always going to have people that, if an expert says something’s true, they’re going to do it,” Smith said. “But everyone has their own minds.”

Though information released about the study made broad claims about health benefits, Jennifer Bass, director of communications for the Kinsey Institute, stressed the importance of realizing sex is different every time, for every person.

“The first problem is to define what you mean by sex,” Bass said. “It could be energetic. It could be very passive. People have all different kinds of sex. ... If you’re in an abusive relationship, don’t tell me sex is going to improve your health status.”

During sexual activity, the body releases certain chemicals and hormones that can help with pain and make individuals feel good about themselves and their lives. Though there might be other health benefits, Bass warns they are often pretty overstated and distorted by the media.

“They’re talking very broadly,” Bass said. “Sex sells. News media love to pick up on things like this and jump to conclusions that maybe even the researcher hasn’t come to. It’s very difficult to show causality. It’s not very difficult to show associations.”

When it comes to causality, both Bass and Dr. Beverly Whipple, sex researcher and professor emerita at Rutgers University, are cautious to determine whether sex causes better health or healthy people are simply having more sex.

Whipple also pointed out that these same benefits aren’t necessarily limited to penile-vaginal intercourse, the focus of the study.

“Most of the studies talk about the same benefits from masturbation and self-stimulation,” Whipple said. “We found a strong pain blocking effect with genial self-stimulation in women.”

Bass said previous studies have shown that orgasms, whether achieved by self-stimulation or intercourse, can help relieve stress. Similarly, Whipple’s past research detailed positive benefits of Kegel exercises and masturbation.

“Relief of menstrual cramps also happens with masturbation and the practice of Kegel exercises,” Whipple said. “When doing Kegel exercises, you focus on relaxing the pelvic floor muscles, which we have found relaxes the uterus as well.”

The distinction between penile-vaginal intercourse and other sexual activity separates this study from past research.

This study favors penile-vaginal intercourse instead of masturbation, self-stimulation and alternative forms of sexual activity, including gay and lesbian relationships.

Bass said how one defines sex is critical to the results it yields. After all, she said, snuggling and caressing may have its own benefits or rewards.

Bass maintained that it is important to realize that sex is different for everyone and to be wary of generalized claims.

“Every time you have sex is different, and every person you have sex with will be different,” she said. “There are just way too many generalizations.”