- Waistline and Body Image - US Food and Drug Administration
Obese women are less likely to have had sex in the previous 12 months compared with women of healthy weight, but were four times as likely to have an unplanned pregnancy, while fat men reported higher levels of erectile dysfunction, scientists have found.
A study by British and French researchers published on the British Medical Journal (BMJ) website on 15 June 2010 found that obese women were 29% less likely to have had a sex partner in the previous 12 months.
Obese men, meanwhile, were more prone to impotence. They were 69% less likely to have had more than one sexual partner in the same period. Obese men under 30 were also far likelier to have a sexually-transmitted disease.
Sex Lives of 10,000 Surveyed
The study was headed by Nathalie Bajos of the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in Paris, the French TV news channel France 24 reported.
It covered more than 10,000 men and women aged 18-69 whose data was chosen at random from a survey of sexual behaviour carried out in France in 2006, making it one of largest ever carried out into obesity and sexual health.
Around two-thirds of the participants were of normal weight, a quarter were overweight and the remainder (411 women and 350 men) were obese.
People with a BMI of 18-24 are considered to have a healthy weight. Overweight was defined by having a body mass index (BMI) of between 25 and 30, and obesity as a BMI of at least 30. BMI is derived by dividing one's weight in kilograms by the square of one's height in metres. Using Imperial or US measurements, it is one's weight in pounds multiplied by 703, and then divided by the square of one's height in inches.
Sex "Less Important"
The researchers found that obese women were 63% less likely to seek advice on contraception, 66% less likely to take the Pill, and generally regarded sex as less important. Furthermore, they were five times more likely to have met their partner on the internet, and were more likely to have an obese partner than women of a healthy weight.
Bajos said social pressure, low self-esteem and concerns about body image may help to explain these findings.
"Obesity Can Harm Sex Life"
Sandy Goldbeck-Wood, a British specialist in psychosexual medicine at Britain's Ipswich Hospital, wrote in an accompanying editorial on the study on the BMJ website that doctors and medical staff must be prepared to discuss sex and weight with patients, even if they found it difficult to raise these issues.
"In public health terms, the study lends a new slant to a familiar message: that obesity can harm not only health and longevity, but your sex life. And culturally, it reminds us clinicians and researchers to look at the subjects we find difficult," Goldbeck-Wood said.
Peter Feuilherade - I took voluntary early retirement from the BBC in 2010, and I'm now a freelance writer. I had worked there as a reporter and news editor ...
