Why do people have sex?
People have sex to relieve tension and experience the pleasure of the act. But tension relief and pleasure can be sought from and obtained from other means.
So besides these obvious reasons for having sex, shouldn’t there be other, deeper reasons stemming from desires to accomplish various things?
Two scientific studies done on this issue have uncovered over 200 reasons why people have sex, from the most beautiful to the most vengeful.
To make it easier for everyone to soak up the results of the studies, the investigators categorized those 200+ reasons into 13 major groups.
Let’s check them out:
- To reduce stress.
- For physical pleasure.
- Because the person found their partner sexually desirable.
- To experience what sex is like.
- To earn money.
- To gain access to a higher class of society.
- To get revenge on a past offender.
- Because sex was the most practical way to go.
- To boost self-esteem.
- Due to excessive pressure.
- Out of a sense of duty.
- For love.
- To prevent their partner’s eyes from wandering.
Table of Contents
General Benefits of Sex
Strengthens the Immune System
Salivary immunoglobulin (SlgA) is a protein secreted by the salivary glands. It helps to protect against bacteria and viruses by binding to them and preventing them from attaching to the mucous membranes of your mouth.
Can frequent sex help your body produce more SlgA? Let’s see.
Investigators at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center conducted a clinical study. They mobilized 122 students (70 females, 42 males) from the Department of Psychology as subjects.
During the study, investigators requested subjects to spit into small plastic containers, which were later frozen and thawed before being analyzed.
According to the analysis results, subjects who had sex frequently (3 or more times per week) had higher immunoglobulin in their saliva than those who did some banging two or fewer times weekly.
Did you read that? More sex equals more SlgA, which equals a stronger immune system.
Please note that, in this study, sex was defined as “any type of genital contact with a partner.” This description was broad enough to cover anal, oral, solo sex, hand jobs, and everything else that involves privates.
Regardless of what kind of sex you prefer, your immune system won’t suffer if you have it regularly.
Induces Sleep
Have you ever been so tired that you couldn’t fall asleep? You’re lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, and you feel like your brain is still running at full speed.
The problem isn’t necessarily what’s keeping you awake—it could be any number of things: a stressful day, a partner who snores, or even just too much caffeine from earlier in the day. But another factor that might be contributing to your sleeplessness: is sex.
Sex might seem like an unlikely culprit for sleep problems, but according to research, it can help you fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly. How?
It all comes down to hormones like oxytocin, or the “love hormone,” released during orgasm. This hormone helps regulate your sleep cycle and makes it easier to fall asleep at night.
In addition to increasing oxytocin levels, sex also reduces cortisol levels. Your body pumps out more cortisol when you’re stressed out or anxious, which makes you even more stressed and delays the onset of sleep.
Sex has been shown to reduce cortisol levels in both men and women, so getting busy with your partner before bed could help you fall asleep faster.
Eases Migraine
A migraine is a condition that causes severe headaches and nausea. It usually lasts between four and 72 hours but can sometimes last longer.
Although the pain can be intense and debilitating, it is not usually life-threatening. Migraines are typically accompanied by an aura, which could include visual disturbances such as blurred vision or seeing flashing lights.
In 2013, an article detailing the effect of sex on migraine attacks was published online. The article reported that 36.4% of men with migraines who noticed that having sex decreased the intensity of their condition used sex as a therapeutic measure.
This figure was much lower for women, as only 13.7% of them intentionally had sex to ease their migraines.
Benefits of Masturbation
Sexual Release
Not everyone who masturbates orgasms from it. But anyone who denies that masturbation doesn’t help them release at least a bit of sexual tension needs a reality check.
When the TENGA New Adult Concept, an organization that strives to increase sexual awareness, went around the table, it ascertained that 59% of Americans masturbate to relieve sexual tension. Meanwhile, 56% of respondents affirmed that solo sex is a source of sexual pleasure.
Better Sleep
There’s nothing like a container of trusty lube, sex toys, and a few minutes of tending to your body at night to help you unwind from the noise and stress of the daytime. Some individuals have reported finding it easier to fall asleep after masturbating.
Why? Because masturbation is a route to orgasming, after which the body is exhausted and craves rest. But how many people masturbate to fall asleep? As of 2016, only 26% of Americans chose masturbation over other sleep remedies.
Good Mood
One R29 user revealed they often masturbated when depressed to escape the slump. This is somewhat similar to texting a lover as fast as you can, or calling them on reflex, whenever you’re hit with bad news or are at your lowest.
When you’re unhappy, your soul yearns for something to restore its happiness, so you reach out to someone who deeply cares about you. Like everything else, getting another human being to pull you from an emotional pit isn’t always possible.
Do you know what is possible? Filling up that vacuum by jerking off to raunchy porn or the image of whoever you’d screw if given a chance.
If you’re feeling down, try touching yourself down there. It hits differently, and that’s a pinky promise.
Increase Sexual Proficiency
Have you wondered whether masturbating before sex can make you last longer and try not to cum early? This Quora user has the answer:
Masturbating a couple of hours before sexual activity will help prolong sex. You should also practice edging when you masturbate. Stroke your penis to the point when you feel you are about to ejaculate, then stop and grip the base of your penis. Do this several times each time you masturbate. This will help you learn to control yourself better when you cum.
From our research, we found 21% of men in America show love to their penises in the absence of their partners! This percentage was slightly higher for females — 30% of them masturbated so that it could enhance their sexual performance.
Satisfies Sexual Needs During Pregnancy
When there are no complications to be wary of, such as a history of miscarriages, vaginal discharge, a leaking amniotic sac, low placental placement in the uterus, etc., pregnancy sex is generally considered safe.
Still, doctors recommend abstinence from sexual intercourse to some pregnant women for certain reasons, including the ones mentioned above. At times, being pregnant with more than one baby rules out the possibility of p-in-v (PIV) sex during the gestation period.
Unfortunately, pregnancy, multiple or not, doesn’t rule out sexual desire. Many women have learned, through experience, that masturbating is a safe way to revel in that toe-curling aftermath of good sex.
If you want to masturbate while pregnant, please discuss this with your doctor to know what’s off-limits and safe for you and the baby.
Benefits of Vaginal Sex
Maybe that was a little too intense. We certainly don’t wish anyone death from being vaginally screwed, but a healthy life full of the following benefits:
Versatility
Vaginal penetration is one of the few types of sex that you can adapt using different techniques. Want to go traditional? You can play it cool by having your partner with the dick or dildo straddle your hips while you lie on your back.
To make things more fun, the penetrator may sit close to the bed, their feet on the floor, while the receiver (R) straddles the penetrator’s hips. R should stretch out her legs so that they’re on either side of P’s hips.
Then, linking their arms, both participants should tilt backward until they’re roughly at a 45-degree angle from each other.
If that’s too difficult or tiring for either of you, the one with the vulva can lie on the edge of a bed, their feet planted on the floor. Once they’re comfortable, the partner penetrating stands over the one on the bed.
When you need your lovemaking session to be more intimate, turn to the lotus sex position. As long as penetration will be through a pussy, there’s almost nothing you can’t achieve with your partner in bed.
Procreation
Yeah, we’re well aware that you can make babies through other means. But if you choose sex as your method of bringing a baby into this world, you need to go vaginal. It’s not negotiable.
Aids Mental Health
Masturbation is one of the commonest things people do when feeling low. Unfortunately, it hardly erases those negative feelings but sweeps them under the carpet of short-lasting, lonely orgasms. But vaginal sex? Let’s allow the facts to speak for themselves.
One survey involving female respondents in Sweden showed that women who orgasmed from mainly p-in-v were happier with their mental health than those who came from other forms of clitoral stimulation.
Brings You Closer to Your Partner
If you loved your partner before having sexual intercourse, you love them even more afterward. There’s something sacred and pure about vaginal sex that you may not find elsewhere.
No wonder this Portuguese study concluded that increased penis-vagina penetration improves how much intimacy, love, passion, trust, and satisfaction a couple shares.
Breaks Psychological Walls
Psychological walls are like invisible barriers that we put up to protect ourselves from emotional pain. They can feel so strong and impenetrable, like a fortress around our hearts.
It’s like we build these walls brick by brick, each one representing a painful experience or trauma that we’ve been through.
At times, these walls can feel suffocating, as if we’re trapped inside them and unable to engage with the world around us fully.
We may struggle to trust others or form deep connections. Letting our guard down and being vulnerable may appear impossible.
Breaking down these barriers takes time, but awesome vaginal sex can speed things up. When some healthy Portuguese women were studied, it was found that orgasming from p-in-v decreases one’s use of “immature defenses.”
Immature defense mechanisms are psychological strategies or walls that individuals use to protect themselves from uncomfortable emotions or difficult situations. However, these mechanisms are often ineffective and counterproductive in the long run.
If you’re at such a point in your relationship, try suggesting vaginal sex (if you can) and encourage your partner to attempt it. You may learn that all your relationship needed was a little dick-vulva interaction to fix itself.
Reduces the Risk of Breast Cancer
According to an article published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine in 2010, having more vaginal sex could make women less prone to breast cancer.
However, the rate at which p-in-v intercourse decreases the risk of breast cancer is directly related to the level of contact between the penis and the vagina.
This means that women whose partners use a condom or pull out before ejaculating, thus interrupting or reducing contact between the genitals, have a higher risk of developing breast cancer.
Also, women who’ve never had vaginal sex are ten times more likely to develop breast cancer.
Higher-quality Prostate Secretions
Compared to masturbation, penetrating the vagina with the dick causes the latter’s prostate gland to release healthier sperm in higher numbers. Wondering why?
When a man expects to insert his cock into a pussy, his body senses that something huge is coming. So it loads the man’s vas deferens (the part of his reproductive system that transports sperm) with better, more volatile sperm and seminal fluid.
Improves Resting Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
Resting heart rate variability measures how the time between heartbeats varies from beat to beat. The more variable those intervals are, the more likely your body is responding to stress—say, from exercise or anxiety—in a healthy way.
Higher HRVs can improve mood, response to situations, and self-control. A study of healthy German adults led scientists to deduce that frequent PIV sessions are linked to greater HRVs.
The summary of the matter is that vaginal sex can enhance your heart’s health, but so can the best CoQ10 supplements.