Encourage more: How the pandemic revolutionized sex life

In an effort to slow the spread and ‘flatten the curve’ of the COVID-19 pandemic By early 2020, governments around the world they started to put in place restrictions on travel and social contact. Lockdown orders and social distancing guidelines brought about drastic changes in daily life, with important implications for leisure activities, including sex.

When freely chosen and pursued for pleasure (the most common pattern of age and sex in Western populations), sex is a popular form of leisure which meets multiple needs and which beneficial for physical and psychological well-being. However, In the aftermath of COVID-19, strict contact restrictions have limited opportunities for recreational sex.

However, While the new rules placed limits on sex, they also created new opportunities. As the restrictions spread, the media began to report suspected changes in sexual behavior, aiming to an increase in online pornographic searches, sales of sex toys, downloads of dating apps and erotic social media posts. This model suggests that When opportunities to seek out in-person and partner sex are limited, solo and online activities can be used to fill the void.

Recently, an online survey of 1,559 adults on the impact of the pandemic on their privacy found that Although almost half of the sample reported a decline in their sex life, one in five participants said they had broadened their sexual repertoire by incorporating new activities. Common additions included sexting, trying new sex positions and sharing sexual fantasies. Being younger, living alone and feeling stressed and they were only related to trying new things. Participants who made new additions they were three times more likely to report an improvement in their sex life. Even in the face of drastic changes in everyday life.

Without a doubt we are in the middle of a sexual revolution, which could definitely change the way we approach sex, today and long after the pandemic. “What studies ultimately show is that sexuality, as a vital human function, undergoes changes like other human behaviors in high stress situations and people look for resources to be able to continue to feel vital ”, explained to Infobae the doctor Beatriz Literat, clinical sexologist and gynecologist from the Department of Gyneco-Sex-Aesthetics of the Halitus Medical Institute.

About one in five participants (20.3%) the investigation whose research procedures have been approved by the Institutional Review Board at Indiana University, said he made a new addition to his sex life since the start of the pandemic. The majority (62.7%) said they made a new addition, 18.4% doing two, 7% doing three and 12% doing four or more.

The most common new additions included trying new sex positions, sexting, submitting nude photos, sharing sex fantasies, watching porn, searching for sex information online, having cybersex, filming yourself masturbating and fulfilling sexual fantasies.

Making a new addition to her sex life was unrelated to sex, with 20.6% self-identified women, 19.4% self-identified men, and 18.4% non-binary participants reporting new recruits. However, it was related to sexual orientation. 22.3% of identified LGBTQ + participants reported new additions, compared to 18.1% of heterosexual participants. The new additions were also related to racial identity. In addition, age, socio-economic status and living as a couple were associated with new hires, with those who were younger, less well off economically and / or living alone and trying more new things.

“It often happens that people explore their sexual sensations more freely and more intensely. ways to reaffirm your life. They are presented as responses to the pandemic scenario where death is close to us ”, declared in dialogue with this media Elsa Wolfberg, psychoanalyst and psychiatrist from the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association.

In the same line, Walter Ghedin, psychiatrist and sex therapist, explained: “A lot of people have felt (and feel) precarious, fragile, at the mercy of an uncontrollable circumstance, Which leads to seek reaffirmation in certain areas, such as sex. The isolation and continuity of the pandemic has forced many couples to seek options to maintain their desire or to achieve improved sexual satisfaction. It is true that the frequency of meetings was low, but it is also true that erotic practices increased that many couples did not dare to experiment. It responded to the need to change the relationship, but also to disseminate in the media various options that many people had access to. And so, sex was able to move away from mere genitality and focus on erotic contact and masturbation ”.

Participants who recruited again were much more likely than those who did not report her sex life had improved since the start of the pandemic. Of those who made new additions, 28.6% said their sex life had improved, 29.2% reported no change and 42.2% reported a decrease. For those who did not make any new additions, 9.8% reported that their sex life had improved, 46.3% reported no change, and 43.9% reported that their sex life had decreased. . Although the percentage reporting decreases was similar in the two groups,Those who made new additions were about three times more likely to report improvements than those who didn’t try anything new. This suggests that many adults are finding creative ways to satisfy their sexual desires and seek sex for pleasure. For some, it has improved their sex life.

Beyond the new additions, changes in a person’s sex life were linked to several other gender factors. Participants reported more positive changes as they felt more desire for sex and for their partner over the past two weeks, they felt less alone overall and during the pandemic, and felt less stressed.

It should be noted that although stress and loneliness were associated with general negative assessments of a person’s sex life, They were bound to try new activities. This pandemic and the social isolation that probably results from it feelings of stress and loneliness have increased, and both factors have strong links with general sexual behavior. For example, sex has been shown to relieve stress, while loneliness has been linked to sexual risk-taking.

“Sex can work like an anti-stress, an anxiolytic against fear and uncertainty or against losses. However, in these cases, he can become compulsive, as it is not the pleasure of the meeting that he seeks in the first place, but the relief from the anxiety. There, all kinds of technologies can be added to produce intense sensations that beat fear and uncertainty, ”he concluded. Wolfberg.

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