The INSIDER Summary:
- A researcher found that one of the top reasons why people avoid sex is medical reasons.
- People who have suffered heart attacks or strokes avoid sex because they don't want to trigger another event.
- Other people with chronic illness may be avoiding sex because of pain or may have low libido because of medication.
- The researcher suggests people have more conversations about sexual health with their doctors.
There are countless reasons why people might avoid sex: they could have religious abstentions, they could be focusing on other things, or they might be asexual. But according to several studies, the top reason why people are avoiding sex is more concerning than that.
In an article for The Conversation, researcher Shervin Assari shared studies which found that medical issues were among the top reasons why people who identify as both male and female avoid having sex.
Sex avoidance was found as a result of a variety of illnesses, both physical and mental. Assari pointed to studies that showed that people with heart diseases and who had suffered strokes frequently avoided sex because they felt that it would trigger a heart attack or stroke.
He also shared a study by the Mayo Clinic that found people avoided sex because their chronic pain made it difficult or a mental illness triggered by the chronic pain made sex unappealing.
Many medications for physical and mental illness can also cause low libido, so while the illness may not be the main cause, the treatment can lower desire for sex.
Assari said that while this trend is concerning, it can be helped by patients speaking with their doctors about low libido or difficulties surrounding sex that may be caused by their illness. But a study showed that more than half of all doctors visits do not include a conversation about sexual health.
Assari wrote that the onus should be on the doctors to address sexual health because if they bring it up first, patients are more likely to talk about it.
"The 'Don’t ask, don't tell' culture should become 'Do ask, do tell,'" he wrote. And we happen to agree.
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