Sexual Health Of Gamers

Research has shown that playing video games has many impacts on the lives of gamers. One area that hasn't got much attention is sexual health. One study compared male gamers and non-gamers on their sexual desire and premature ejaculation. Here's what they have found.

Every frequent reader of this newsletter knows that gaming has many positive and negative effects—especially on health. Although there are many studies on topics such as obesity, nutrition, sleep, well-being, and so on, there's very limited research on the relationship between gaming and sexual health.

396 players were surveyed. 287 of them were categorized as gamers (playing > 1h/day on average) and 109 as non-gamers. The results showed that there was a lower prevalence of premature ejaculation in gamers compared to non-gamers. It was also found that non-gamers had a higher median sexual desire score. Lastly, there was no difference between both groups with regard to erectile function, orgasmic function, and overall satisfaction.

Ok, so the data suggest that gamers last longer in bed but don't seek sex as often as non-gamers do. There are many aspects that come into play in sexual health. For instance, sexual desire may change with mood, anxiety state, and neurohormonal factors (e.g., dopamine, prolactin, and testosterone). At the same time, erective and ejaculatory abilities can be caused by psychological problems, such as anxiety, diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), and obesity.

The researchers suggest that one way of interpreting the findings is the following. Video games tap into the human reward system. The main hormone associated with that is dopamine (pleasure hormone). It is also involved in facilitating orgasm and ejaculation and has an excitatory role (making us horny) in intercourse.

The D1 receptors are activated only during dopamine peaks, whereas D2 receptors are activated by a slow, progressive release of dopamine. This is important to know, because...

"Gaming, as a source of repeated dopamine peaks, might lead to an enhanced steady-state homeostasis and to decreased activation of receptors given the same levels of dopamine; this might cause tolerance in the ejaculatory reflex and a decreased interest in intercourse..." [1]

In plain English: video games are designed to give us one dopamine high after another (e.g., clutch moments, outplays, lucky moments)—good or bad. This increases our tolerance to dopamine. Similar to drugs, the body needs stronger or more of them to feel the same highs.

Similarly, more dopamine (than "usual") is needed to get you aroused, possibly contributing to a lower sexual desire. Also, if you have the "choice" between sex and playing a video game that serves your dopaminergic needs, some may choose gaming. However, lower excitation also means you need to get really going until you finish (lower premature ejaculation).

🥡 The Takeaways

On top of this interpretation, I also suspect that the lifestyle behavior of gamers plays a role. In an earlier episode, we have seen that non-gamers are typically healthier, meaning less sitting in front of the computer, less fast food, etc. Since dopamine is a hormone and neurotransmitter, less movement and worse nutrition may also negatively impact your sex drive.

It's worth noting that the correlation of gaming and sexual desire was only significant when playing for more than 1h/day. This would, similar to other findings, indicate that some playing is ok but too much can have negative consequences.

Hope you enjoyed this episode. See you next week,

Christian 🙂

References

[1] Sansone et al., 2017