Sex and drugs

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Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Sex and the use of drugs, both legal and illegal, have been linked throughout human history, encompassing all aspects of sex: desire, performance, pleasure, conception, gestation, and disease.

Disinhibition

Drugs are frequently associated with reduced sexual inhibition, both when used voluntarily in social circumstances, and involuntarily, as in the case of some date rape drugs.

Because drug and alcohol use is commonly presented as an excuse for risky or socially unacceptable behaviour, it is necessary to treat the idea of a direct causal relation between drug use and unsafe sex with caution. Drugs may provide a socially acceptable excuse for engaging in sexual behaviours in which people may want to engage but perhaps know that they should not.[1]

Sexual function

Some forms of sexual dysfunction such as erectile dysfunction can be treated with drugs. Because of their effects, erectile dysfunction drugs are sometimes used for recreational purposes.

Many drugs, both legal and illegal, have side effects that affect the user's sexual function. Tobacco use (e.g., cigarette smoking), also reduces sexual function, with the incidence of impotence being approximately eighty-five percent higher in male smokers compared to non-smokers.[2] Many drugs can cause loss of libido as a side effect.[citation needed]

Since the partial cause of the refractory period is the inhibition of dopamine by an orgasm-induced secretion of prolactin,[3] such potent dopamine receptor agonists as cabergoline may help achieve multiple orgasms as well as the retention of sexual arousal for longer periods.[4]

Contraception and abortion

Drug-based contraception has been available since the development of the contraceptive pill. As well as their contraceptive effects, contraceptive drugs can also have adverse sexual and reproductive side-effects. Prior to the availability of effective contraceptives, some substancies were also used as abortifacients to terminate pregnancy; medical abortion exists as a modern medical practice.

See also

References

  1. Race K (2009): Pleasure Consuming Medicine: The queer politics of drugs Durham: Duke University Press.
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External links