Porn is damaging young men’s sexual health and causing erectile dysfunction, expert warns
2016-08-16
Young men are increasingly suffering sexual health problems as a direct result of their porn addiction, an expert has cautioned.
The NHS has seen a rise in the number of young men in their late teens and early twenties complaining of erectile dysfunction, which therapist Angela Gregory attributes to online porn.
“Our experience is that, historically, men that were referred to our clinic with problems with erectile dysfunction were older men whose issues were related to diabetes, MS, cardiovascular disease,” she said.
“These younger men do not have organic disease, they’ve already been tested by their GP and everything is fine.
“So one of the first assessment questions I’d always ask now is about pornography and masturbatory habit because that can be the cause of their issues about maintaining an erection with a partner.”
Nick (not his real name), found his porn viewing habits quickly escalated once he got his first laptop aged 15, leading to him watch videos every day. At his lowest point, he was watching around two hours daily.
“What I was watching, it definitely got more extreme over a short period of time in my case. There was nothing that would give me a kick,” he said.
“Normal stuff didn’t do anything any more, so I had to get more and more extreme material. [It was] disturbing stuff that disturbed me that, in normal life, I wouldn’t dream of doing.”
Watching porn divorced from human contact had a dramatic effect on Nick’s libido, making it difficult for him to perform in real life.
“I found that when I was lying next to a girl a lot that I just wouldn’t be horny at all, despite being really attracted to the girl and wanting to have sex with her, [because] my sexuality was completely wired towards porn.
“At my peak I was probably watching up to two hours of porn every day.”
Nick approached a doctor for help, who told him a lot of men his age were suffering the same type of problems.
He eventually managed 100 days without watching porn, and saw his sexual health markedly improve.
“My libido came back with a vengeance and I met this girl and it was great. For the first time in ages I was able to flirt and within quite a short time I was able to have normal sex,” he said. “I was feeling so balanced and happy.”
An anonymous young woman told BBC Newsbeat she has spent over £2,000 on laser hair removal after a one night stand criticised her pubic hair, which she believes is down to the influence of porn.
“I think porn has definitely had an impact on what men expect women’s body hair to be like,” she said.
Bob, who is married to Rachel, first watched porn when he was nine or 10.
“I really started to look at it actively in probably year eight, and quickly found myself addicted. Since then I’ve been trying to work my way away from it, and remove it from my life,” he said. Obviously, it’s hard. It is an issue for me and my wife.”
“It makes me feel rubbish about myself. If you sometimes look at porn, now that we’re married, I just feel like ‘Am I not giving you something that you want?’” Rachel said. “I don’t think you can masturbate to porn and then pretend that it’s not part of your sexuality.”
If you think you’re having a problem related to porn, Angela Gregory advises talking to your GP.