MELBOURNE—A new study conducted by a team at La Trobe University in Melbourne has found that regular marijuana usage can lead to decreased sexual performance in men, including an inability to orgasm.
The research team analyzed data collected as part of a 2005 telephone survey of 8,656 Australians of both genders between the ages of 16 to 64. Overall, 8.7 percent of respondents said they had gotten high in the last year, with twice as many men (11.2 percent) admitting to marijuana use as women (6.1 percent). Results are revealed that respondents under 36 were more likely to smoke marijuana than older participants.
For males who smoked weed daily, the results indicated they were four times less likely to reach orgasm. However, many of the correlations between marijuana use and sexual performance were made after accounting for factors such as age, tobacco and alcohol use, and occupation.
According to Sharon Johnson, an epidemiologist at the University of Missouri St. Louis, who also has found associations between drug use and sexual problems, the new study does not establish a cause-effect relationship between marijuana and sexual performance.
"There is a more complicated relationship out there somewhere," she said.
It is also unclear what kinds of pot the respondents were smoking. It is well known that different strains of cannabis affect the mind and body differently, and that many blends are created to specifically activate feelings of both mental and physical euphoria, including sexual feelings.
Interestingly, even though many male smokers reported sexual problems, they also said they had more partners than non-smokers. Indeed, marijuana users were more likely to have had two or more sex partners in the previous year than men who didn't smoke pot.
Female smokers reported an even stronger trend toward increased sexual activity, and were seven times more likely to have been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection in the last year than non-smokers. However, researchers found that female smokers had no more problems in the bedroom than abstainers.
It seems as if more research may be needed on the subject.
