A new study of 373 women, conducted by researchers at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Mo., found that women who used marijuana prior to engaging in sexual activity were more than twice as likely to experience “satisfactory” orgasms than those who did not get high prior to getting down. The study was published in June in the medical journal Sexual Medicine.
Of the women in the study, which took place between March 2016 and February 2017, 127—or 34 percent—said that they used cannabis before sexual activity. Of those women, most “reported increases in sex drive, improvement in orgasm, decrease in pain, but no change in lubrication,” the study’s authors wrote.
In fact, “women who reported marijuana use before sexual activity had 2.13 higher odds of reporting satisfactory orgasms than women who reported no marijuana use,” according to the study. The researchers also found that women who described themselves as “frequent” pot users enjoyed 2.1 times better chances of “satisfactory” orgasms, whether they used the drug immediately before sexual activity or not.
The research paper did not note whether there were differences in sexual satisfaction among women who consumed marijuana by varying methods, such as by smoking, vaping, or via edibles, that is, food items such as chocolate that has been enhanced with cannabis oil.
But earlier research, reported last year by CNN, showed that smoking or vaping pot was more likely to produce enhanced sexual effects simply because users who consume edibles are more likely to misjudge the dose they are receiving and eat too much marijuana.
The enhanced sexual effects of pot occur mainly when the drug is used in low to moderate doses, according to the CNN report.
The St. Louis University study also did not appear to distinguish between types of orgasm-producing activity, making no distinction as to whether the women in the study achieved, or attempted to achieve, orgasm through penetrative sexual activity, or other forms of sexual stimulation such as masturbation.
The St. Louis University study concludes by calling for further research into how the endocannabinoid system — that is, the human body’s system for absorbing and processing the active ingredients in cannabis — functions in women. Such research, “could help lead to development of treatments for female sexual dysfunction,” the study’s authors say.
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