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hey ladies, want better sex? watch more porn: study

using porn to masturbate made arousal easier, and increased the pleasure of orgasm.

by jordan heuvelmans

may 29 2020

read time

2 minute read

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study challenges perception that porn is bad for sexual relationships. stock/getty

there’s always been a debate around porn. some enjoy it, and others don’t. but for women, one new study reveals that porn can be associated with positive sexual experiences , psypost reports.

published in the international journal of environmental research and public health , the survey asked 2,433 women in the united states and hungary to complete an anonymous survey providing information about their sex lives.

the research team discovered that pornography used during masturbation was more common among premenopausal women, women with anxiety or depression, non-heterosexual women, women having two or more partners, and american women.

frequently using pornography was connected to several positive outcomes during masturbation and sexual experiences with partners. respondents reported frequently using porn to masturbate were found to have less difficulty getting aroused, less difficulty reaching an orgasm, more time to orgasm, greater orgasm pleasure and a higher chance of reaching an orgasm.

when it came to sex with partners, frequent use of porn showed that women had less difficulty getting aroused and had more time to orgasm.

“in our regression models, more frequent pornography use was not associated with lower sexual responsivity. in fact, pornography use during masturbation predicted greater ease becoming aroused during partnered sex,” study author sean m. mcnabney, an adjunct instructor at valparaiso university told psypost .

“we also observed no association between pornography and sexual relationship satisfaction, suggesting that the latter is influenced by other factors. thus, these findings challenge the common assumption that pornography is consistently harmful to partnered sexual relationships,” he said.

mcnabney cautioned that the survey didn’t ask respondents if they perceived themselves to be addicted or dependent on porn to achieve orgasm, and that they didn’t look at attitudes towards porn in their survey.

“these factors are relevant because distress resulting from pornography use (whether due to perceived addiction or violation of cultural norms) may independently interfere with the sexual response cycle,” he said.

the team discovered that there were some factors that were linked to impaired sexual functioning. factors like lower levels of education, anxiety and depression were linked to orgasmic dysfunction. they noted that anxiety and depression were also linked to low satisfaction both sexually and in relationships.

“some readers may be relieved to learn that pornography use is fairly common among women and is unlikely to interfere with sexual functioning during partnered relationships. other variables such as ongoing anxiety/depression or sexual relationship dissatisfaction appear to more consistently predict sexual problems,” said mcnabney.

jordan heuvelmans is a freelance journalist with healthing.ca. you can follow her on twitter at @jordanheuvelm

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