Watching more pornography linked to worse erectile function, study suggests

Survey finds a fifth of men needed to watch ‘more extreme’ material to maintain arousal levels

'We believe doctors dealing with erectile dysfunction should also be asking about watching pornography,' researchers say (Getty)

The man's erectile function is linked to the amount of pornography he watches, a study suggests.

Researchers said watching pornography is associated with higher levels of dissatisfaction with “normal sex”, with 35 per cent of survey respondents saying they found pornography more stimulating than sex with a partner.

Teams from Belgium, Denmark and the UK said there had been little previous research on the issue despite the rapid uptake in consumption of pornography since it has become widely available over recent decades on the internet.

To look into the impact, the researchers set up an online questionnaire which was advertised mainly to men in Belgium and Denmark through social media, posters and flyers.

A total of 3,267 men replied to the 118 questions, which were about masturbation, frequency of pornography watching, and sexual activity with partners.

The questionnaire focused on men who had had sex within the previous four weeks.

Head researcher, Professor Gunter de Win of the University of Antwerp and University Hospital Antwerp, said: “We found that there was a big range of responses. In our sample, men watch quite a lot of porn, on average around 70 minutes per week, normally for between 5 and 15 minutes per time, with obviously some watching very little and some watching much, much more.”

About 23 per cent of men under-35 who responded to the survey said they had some level of erectile dysfunction when having sex with a partner.

Professor de Win said: “This figure was higher than we expected. We found that there was a highly significant relationship between time spent watching porn and increasing difficulty with erectile function with a partner, as indicated by the erectile function and sexual health scores.”

People who watch more pornography unsurprisingly also scored high on pornography addiction scales.

“We need to keep understand what this work means and doesn't mean. It is a questionnaire rather than a clinical trial, and it could be that the people who have responded are not completely representative of the whole male population.

“However, the work was designed to unpick any relationship between porn and erectile dysfunction, and given the large sample size we can be pretty confident about the findings,” he said.

The researchers said they found that 90 per cent of men “fast-forward to watch the most arousing pornographic scenes”.

“There's no doubt that porn conditions the way we view sex,” the research team said. “In our survey only 65 per cent of men felt that sex with a partner was more exciting than watching porn.”

In addition, 20 per cent of men felt they needed to watch more extreme porn to get the same level of arousal as previously.

“We believe that the erectile dysfunction problems associated with porn stem from this lack of arousal,” the researchers wrote

Professor de Win said: “Our next step in this research to identify which factors lead to erectile dysfunction, and to conduct a similar study on the effects of porn on women.

“In the meantime, we believe that doctors dealing with erectile dysfunction should also be asking about watching pornography.”

Professor Maarten Albersen of the University of Leuven in Belgium, who was not involved with the study, said: “This is an interesting study by Professor De Win and colleagues. The sample consisted mainly of younger men recruited via (social) media and posters, which may result in a sample biased towards higher online porn consumption rates“.

“All-in-all, the study raises interesting insights in the fact that porn consumption by men may lead to impaired erectile function and/or sexual satisfaction or confidence during partner-sex. As Professor De Win says, the running hypothesis is that the type of porn watched may come more explicit over time and partner-sex may not lead to the same level of arousal as the pornographic material does.

He added: “The study contributes to an ongoing debate on the topic; experts have highlighted that porn may have both positive and negative effects, and could for example be used as an aid in the treatment of sexual dysfunctions, so this is a controversial area and the last words have not been said on this topic.”

The study was presented at the European Association of Urology virtual congress 2020.