Stanford study links pot and sexual activity

Survey suggests more frequent users have sex more often, but not why

STANFORD » Does smoking weedmake you frisky?

A major new Stanford University study shows a link betweenmarijuana use and sexual desire, suggesting that there may be science behind the age- old practice of using the drug as an aphrodisiac.

The groundbreaking analysis of the lifestyles of more than 50,000 American men and women stops short of recommending pot to spice up your sex life. Scientists stress that the study, published Friday in the Journal of SexualMedicine, doesn’t necessarily show that toking leads to more and happier sex.

“It’s too early to recommend it as treatment,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. Michael Eisenberg, assistant professor of urology at Stanford

University School of Medicine.

However, the data does suggest a relationship between weed and sex. Women who were daily pot users had sex on average 7.1 times a month, compared with six times for nonusers. Among men, marijuana users had sex 6.9 times a month, compared with 5.6 times for nonusers.

In addition, sex rose steadily with increasing marijuana use. More fre- quent users — those who smoke weekly or daily— reported more sex than less frequent users, it found.

While the study focused on a specific age group — men and women between the ages of 25 and 45 — the findings held for all people of all races, educational levels, income groups and religions, every health status, marital status and whether they had children.

Eisenberg launched the study after years of patients’ questions— and having no good answer.

As a urologist specializing in sexual function and reproduction, he spends a lot of time reviewing patients’ medical histories and lifestyles.

“Marijuana use is very common,” and next year’s legalization of recreational marijuana in California will ease access, “but its large-scale use and association with sexual frequency hasn’t been studied much in a scientific way,” Eisenberg said.

Until the new findings, he had advised patients not to use marijuana. He assumed that smoking cannabis was like smoking tobacco, which is known to interfere with sexual performance.

Previous research has been contradictory. There are reports of erectile dysfunction in heavy users and reduced sperm counts in men who smoke it. But there have also been experiments showing that marijuana stimulates activity in brain regions involved in sexual arousal and activity.

To get an accurate picture of the drug’s effect on intercourse frequency, Eisenberg and colleague Dr. Andrew Sun turned to amassive collection of data held by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers surveyed respondents about how many times they’ve had intercourse with a member of the opposite sex in the past four weeks and how frequently they’ve smoked marijuana over the past year. About 24.5 percent of men and 14.5 percent of women in the analysis reported having used marijuana.

As a result of the research, Eisenberg has now changed his advice to patients. For instance, if a patient is both overweight and smokes marijuana, he focuses on a strategy of weight loss rather than quitting marijuana use, he said.

But more research must be done to better understand these findings, he said.

“There are different hypotheses about why the association exists,” he said.

It’s possible that some personality types may be more likely to both use marijuana and have more sex. But, he added, there may also be an underlying biological mechanism to study.

“It may be that marijuana increases arousal and sexual satisfaction,” Eisenberg said.