COVID may be slowing sex drive

Some men may be having difficulties getting a lift due to stress associated with COVID-19. Sex therapist and marriage counsellor Dr Carla Dunbar said that "Stress can cause erectile dysfunction".

"But it is based on how the person deals with it. Not only COVID, but stress from anything can affect a person's libido," Dunbar told THE WEEKEND STAR.

An article titled 'The Psychiatric Impact of COVID-19 on Sexual Health', which was published in the Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry, points to research that links COVID-19, depression and erectile dysfunction. The authors pointed out that a direct link between changes in sexual function and COVID-19 has not yet been studied, but nonetheless opined that "negative effects on sexual health are expected".

Anxiety and depression

"Anxiety and depression are commonly seen in men with sexual disorders such as erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation. Anxious men are more likely to experience performance anxiety, while those with depression tend to report lack of libido," the article said. Dunbar said that there are certain sudden changes that can cause temporary impotence.

"Things out of the ordinary happening with a male can cause situational impotence, so it is a situation that they are faced with that is affecting them, just as when men go through early retirement or job loss," she said.

Dunbar said she has not received any complaints of erectile dysfunction linked to COVID-19 since the pandemic. She, however, said that it is not unlikely that where a male's libido has fallen off recently, it is likely to have an effect on his relationship.

"Some women will welcome the reprieve of not being bothered to have to meet their partner sexual desires, while there are others who are in the height of their sexual peak, and if their partner is not functioning, then it will pose a problem," Dunbar said.