Intimacy Is Good for Your Health

Reported benefits of having sex include improved immunity, better sleep and heart health, delayed menopause, protection from prostate cancer, and pain relief.

If it seems too good to be true… you know the rest. But research does suggest that having sex is good for you.

For example, in a study of nearly 7,000 older Americans (the average age was 65), those who had had any kind of sexual activity in the past year were happier with their lives, particularly men who had intercourse more than twice a month.

It’s true that much of this body of research relies on people to report correctly how often they have sex. It’s also hard to get past a correlation to establish cause and effect. Does sex make people healthier (and happier), or do robust people have more sex?

Don’t let any of this uncertainty get your libido down, though. There’s enough evidence to support at least modest health benefits — and there’s nothing to lose.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: How to Increase Sex Drive

Sex is exercise

Sex boosts your heart rate, burns calories, and gives muscles a workout, one study found. The level of the exercise was characterized as “moderate,” something like walking briskly, but sex varies in intensity, so only you know how much exercise you got.

Sex boosts immunity

Another study found that the more frequently you have sex, the higher the salivary level of immunboglobulin A, which helps immunize the gastrointestinal tract and the respiratory system from invasive microorganisms. It is a key component in saliva, which helps protect your mouth from disease-causing bacteria.

It lifts your mood

Sex may also relieve depression and stress. For example, women in one study who had sex without condoms were less depressed. The reason? Semen may have components that “antagonize” depressive symptoms, the authors wrote.

Sex fights pain

Famed sex researchers Beverly Whipple and Barry Komisaruk of Rutgers University reported that sexual self-stimulation in women and orgasms increase their pain threshold. A rise in the neuro chemical oxytocin gets most of the credit.

Specifically, sex has been found to help reduce migraines and cluster headaches,  and it can block back and leg pain.

Sex aids sleep

Both men and women self-reported better sleep after an orgasm, whether they achieved it with a partner or through masturbation, according to one large study. The release of oxytocin and prolactin in orgasm for women is slightly sedating. 

Intimacy delays menopause

A large study of pre- and peri-menopausal women found that women who had less sex had menopause earlier. Those who had weekly sex were 28 percent less likely to enter menopause than women who had sex less than once a month.

Sex strengthens the pelvic floor  

The contractions of an orgasm strengthen the muscles that control urination in women.

Sex cuts prostate cancer risk

One review concluded that men who had sexual intercourse more often had a lower risk of prostate cancer, possibly because of more frequent ejaculations. 

Intimacy boosts memory

Could it be that having frequent sex protects your memory as you age? If anything sounds too good to be true, that might be at the top of the list. But at least two large studies have found a link between sexual activity and performance on memory tasks in older adults.

If these benefits have you wondering whether it’s the type of relationship that counts, at least one study supports the idea that casual sex — sometimes called "hookups” — gives people a lift if they like casual sex. That may sound like common sense, but many people assume casual sex is always a downer, at least for women. This study found no differences between men and women.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: When Your Man Doesn’t Want to Have Sex