Obese people less sexually satisfied

Picture credit: www.thebodydiaries.com

Weighing too much may increase your risk for developing many health problems (1). Being overweight or obese (2), puts you at risk for many of obesity's health effects. These include:

Type 2 diabetes

Heart disease

Stroke

High blood pressure (hypertension)

High cholesterol (hypercholesterolemia)

Certain cancers

Sleep apnoea

Osteoarthritis

Gallbladder disease and gallstones

Fatty liver disease (also called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH)

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)

Gout

Decreased longevity

Psychological and emotional effects.

even an increased risk of buying two plane tickets for one person

......and now let's ADD decreased sexual satisfaction!

Being fat can dampen your sex life, a new study suggests.

Duke University researchers studied 91 obese men and 134 obese women with a body mass index (BMI) of at least 30 who completed a sexual functioning questionnaire before enrolling in a weight loss study. The questionnaire covered nine areas: interest, desire, arousal, orgasm, satisfaction, behavior, relationship, masturbation and sexual problems.

"We found that there was lower sexual satisfaction and lower sexual quality of life among women than men, and overall sexual quality of life was low among both groups," Dr. Truls Ostbye, a professor in the department of community and family medicine, said in a Duke news release.

The researchers also compared the obese patients' scores to the results from a group of cancer survivors and a general population group. Obese women's scores were lower than both those groups' scores, while obese men's scores were between the scores of the cancer survivors and the general population group.

"Our findings contribute to a growing body of research that indicates obesity is associated with reduced sexual functioning and sexual quality of life among both men and women," Ostbye said.

Doctors should be aware of this issue and invite obese patients to talk about it, the researchers said.


1. Kopelman PG, Grace C. New thoughts on managing obesity. Gut. 2004 Jul;53(7):1044-53. Click here for more facts.

2. Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 kg/m² or more, where a person’s BMI is defined as their weight in kg divided by the square of their height in metres. Overweight is defined as a BMI between 25 and 29.9 kg/m².

3. Ostbye T, Kolotkin RL, He H, Overcash F, Brouwer R, Binks M, Syrjala KL, Gadde KM. Sexual functioning in obese adults enrolling in a weight loss study. J Sex Marital Ther. 2011 May;37(3):224-35.

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