Improved Sexual Health through Yoga Practice: Insights on Its Effects on Sexual Function
Rewritten Article:
The world wide web is overflowing with wellness blogs that advocate yoga for a better sex life, and there are personal accounts aplenty of yoga supposedly enhancing one's carnal encounters. But does the science back up these claims? Let's dive in.
Yoga, an ancient practice, has been recently discovered to provide numerous health benefits, such as combating stress, depression, anxiety, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and thyroid problems, among others. Researchers have delved into the secret mechanisms behind these advantages.
Unveiled are fascinating discoveries: yoga lowers the body's inflammatory response, reins in genetic expression that leads to stress, cuts cortisol, and boosts a protein that helps the brain stay young and healthy. Not to mention it simply feels great. And if the internet's tales of the mythical "coregasm" during yoga are to be believed, it can feel downright amazing.
Connecting with our bodies can be replenishing, revitalizing, and simply satisfying. But can yoga's cheeky poses really improve our sex lives? Here's an inspection of the research.
Yoga Enhances Sexual Function in Women
One frequently cited study, which appeared in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, indicated that yoga positively impacts sexual function, especially among women over 45.
With 40 volunteers participating and self-reporting their sexual function before and after 12 weeks of yoga, researchers found that after the sessions, their sexual function significantly improved across the board.
Particularly impressive: as many as 75% of the women reported improvements in their sex lives after their yoga training. The women were taught 22 poses, or yogasanas, customarily believed to tone the core abdominal muscles, improve digestion, strengthen the pelvic floor, and boost mood.
Yoga Enhances Sexual Function in Men
It's not just the ladies who benefit from yoga – not by a long shot. A study led by Dr. Vikas Dhikav, a neurologist at the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi, India, probed the effects of a 12-week yoga program on the sexual satisfaction of men.
In the end, the participants reported significant improvements in their sexual function, as gauged by the standard Male Sexual Quotient. The researchers spotted improvements in all areas of male sexual satisfaction: "desire, intercourse satisfaction, performance, confidence, partner synchronization, erection, ejaculatory control, and orgasm."
What's more, a comparative study led by the same team of researchers found that yoga is a viable, nonpharmacological alternative to fluoxetine (better known as Prozac) for treating premature ejaculation.
The study included 15 yoga poses, ranging from the simpler Kapalbhati (a seated position with contracted abdominal muscles) to the more complex dhanurasana (the "bow pose").
Yoga's Sex-Enhancing Mechanisms
So how does yoga boost our sexual prowess? Researchers at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada, illuminated some sex-enhancing mechanisms in a review of existing literature led by Dr. Lori Brotto.
Dr. Brotto and her colleagues explain that yoga regulates focus and breathing, decreases anxiety and stress, and regulates the nervous system, triggering rest, relaxation, and other metabolic processes that induce a state of calm.
"All these effects are associated with improvements in sexual response," write the reviewers, "so it is reasonable that yoga might also be associated with improvements in sexual health."
There are also psychological factors at play. "Female yoga practitioners are likely to be less likely to objectify their bodies and more aware of their physical selves," report Dr. Brotto and her colleagues, "this tendency may be linked with increased sexual responsibility and assertiveness – perhaps even sexual desires."
The Power of the Moola Bandha
Stories about unleashing blocked energy in root chakras and moving "kundalini energy" up and down the spine until you experience orgasm-like sensations are dubious, to say the least. However, other yogic concepts might seem more appealing to the skeptics among us. Moola bandha is one such concept.
"Moola bandha encourages contraction of the perineum and stimulates the sensory-motor and autonomic nervous systems in the pelvic region," write Dr. Brotto and her colleagues in their review. "Specifically, moola bandha directly affects the gonads and the perineal body/cervix." The video below demonstrates a practice for pelvic floor muscles that incorporates moola bandha.
Studies suggest that practicing moola bandha can relieve period pain, childbirth pain, and sexual difficulties in women, as well as help with premature ejaculation and control testosterone secretion in men.
Moola bandha is comparable to the medically recommended Kegel exercises, thought to prevent urinary incontinence and enhance the enjoyment of sex for both men and women. In fact, many sex therapy centers encourage this yoga practice to help women develop awareness of their sensations of arousal in their genital area, thus enhancing desire and sexual experiences.
Another yoga move that strengthens the pelvic floor muscles is bhekasana, or the "frog pose." In addition to improving sexual experiences, this pose may help alleviate symptoms of vestibulodynia (pain in the vaginal vestibule) and vaginismus (the involuntary contraction of vaginal muscles that hinders sexual intercourse).
The Reliability of the Evidence
While it's easy to get excited about the potential sexual benefits of yoga, its important to keep in mind the vast gap between the amount of empirical, or experimental, evidence and the anecdotal evidence on the internet. The latter exists in abundance, but the studies that have tried to test the benefits of yoga for sexual function are scarce.
Additionally, most of these studies had relatively small sample sizes and did not include a control group. However, more recent studies – which focused on women experiencing sexual dysfunction along with other conditions – have shown stronger evidence.
For example, a randomized controlled trial investigated the effects of yoga on women with metabolic syndrome, a population with a higher risk of sexual dysfunction overall. For these women, a 12-week yoga program led to "significant improvement" in arousal and lubrication, whereas no such improvements were observed in the women who did not practice yoga.
Improvements were also found in blood pressure, prompting the researchers to conclude that "yoga may be an effective treatment for sexual dysfunction in women with metabolic syndrome as well as for metabolic risk factors."
Another randomized trial examined the sexual benefits of yoga for women with multiple sclerosis (MS). The participants underwent 3 months of yoga training and attended eight weekly sessions.
Importantly, women in the yoga group "showed improvement in physical ability" and sexual function, while women in the control group exhibited worsening symptoms.
In conclusion, while more scientific evidence is necessary to confirm the efficacy of yoga for our sex lives, the foundation for its potential benefits is definitely there. Until more scientific evidence clarifies whether "yogasms" are real or not, we think there's enough reason to incorporate yoga into our daily routines.
Experimenting with it could be tremendously gratifying – and our pelvic muscles will definitely thank us for it.
- The benefits of yoga in enhancing sexual health are backed by scientific research, as revealed in a study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, which found that yoga positively impacts sexual function, particularly among women over 45.
- Yoga has shown to improve sexual function in men as well, as a study led by Dr. Vikas Dhikav found significant improvements in male sexual satisfaction, including desire, intercourse satisfaction, performance, and orgasm.
- Yoga's sex-enhancing mechanisms include regulating focus and breathing, decreasing anxiety and stress, and stimulating the pelvic region through practices like the Moola Bandha, which can relieve period pain, childbirth pain, and sexual difficulties in women, as well as help with premature ejaculation and control testosterone secretion in men.
- A yoga practice like bhekasana, or the "frog pose," strengthens the pelvic floor muscles and may help alleviate symptoms of vestibulodynia and vaginismus.
- While the empirical evidence supporting the sexual benefits of yoga is somewhat limited, more recent studies focusing on women with conditions like metabolic syndrome and multiple sclerosis have shown stronger evidence, indicating that yoga may be an effective treatment for sexual dysfunction.
- Incorporating yoga into daily routines could potentially lead to improvements in sexual health and function, and the overall benefits yielded by this ancient practice in terms of physical and mental well-being make it a worthwhile addition to one's health-and-wellness, fitness-and-exercise, and sexual-health regimen.
