The study revealed the irony that pornography, a male-dominated industry, is linked to an erosion of the quality of sex life

Porn is bad for men's sex lives - that's not the warning from porn videos, but according to a new study, maybe it should be.

For women, on the other hand, porn use may not be so bad.

The study published in the journal "Psychological Medicine", the longitudinal study conducted over three years included more than one hundred thousand participants.

The researchers measured the participants' frequency of pornography use, sexual ability and sexual functioning.

The conclusion they drew is 'ironic', Telegrafi reports.

The excessive use of pornography among heterosexual men has led to the point that they 'doubt their sexual performance, but face problems in the sense of 'sexual impulse, erection and biological functioning'.

And not only that, it has been established that their partners are also unhappy.

- In women, researchers have observed an 'opposite trend'.

The more women watch pornography, the greater their sense of sexual ability, while the problems are smaller and their partners are satisfied with some aspects of their sexuality, the researchers noted.

In other words, porn use in women is associated with more confidence in bed.

The authors did not miss the irony of the discovery.

"Our study reveals the irony that pornography, otherwise a male-dominated industry aimed at a male-dominated audience, is associated with the erosion of the quality of men's sex lives and the improvement of women's sex lives," they write.

Past research supports the findings of this study.

According to a 2017 report, pornography can make real-life sexual performance more difficult for men who constantly rely on it for pleasure.

Explaining why this might happen, Joseph Alukal, director of male reproductive health at New York University, explained that men believe they should be able to do what happens in these movies, and when they can't, it causes them a lot of frustration. , anxiety

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Why is the impact of pornography on women so different?

Perhaps this is because, rather than treating it as a gauge for behavior in bed, many women use pornography as a way to explore their sexuality, something that may not have room for them within the confines of a heterosexual relationship that often it depends on the husband's pleasure.

Furthermore, social conditioning can make women feel ashamed of their sexual desires, which somehow prevents them from openly discussing it with their peers or even experimenting with their bodies.

Porn can provide a dose of confidence – which many wish they had known in their teenage years.

– It's a way to see what you like and what you don't.

If something intrigues you, you can try it in real life.

If you don't like something, you'll know to put the brakes on before it happens.

It can start a new path that you and your partner want to explore, but it can also lead you away from a path you don't want to go down - says Aly Walansky, a writer from New York, who believes that just seeing porn makes you more confident in bed.

Samantha Blake, life coach, wrote how porn opened her eyes to sex.

– For a long time I thought that men want to do all the work, that they like to be dominant and that the female role in sex is to be the 'taker', however I learned that in many cases we have a lot to do.

I wish someone had said this a long time ago - says Blake, adding that in the process of watching different scenes, she began to understand how little she knew about sex, about relationships, even how little she knew about the body her.

Using pornography to influence women has another side

A 2019 study found that recalling porn while intimate with their male partners prevented women from enjoying sex — because it made them feel insecure about how they looked.

Subsequent research has also shown that for many women, viewing pornography can lead to the development of body image problems.

Shame and anxiety about one's body can cause disengagement during intercourse—if not complete avoidance of physical intimacy—leading to decreased sexual satisfaction.

But given that feminist pornography is still far from mainstream, it's important to take the findings of this study with a grain of salt.

Pornography can translate into confidence, pleasure and all the other positive things about a woman's sex life.

However, 'mainstream porn' reeks of sexism and misogyny, often through an over-reliance on non-consensual sex, in addition to idealizing an unrealistic body image with toned curves, perfectly sculpted abs and super-flexible bodies.

As such, dismissing the negative impact of pornography on women's sex lives simply because a large number of participants believe it can boost self-esteem can be a rather one-dimensional view, regardless of the degree of truth embedded in it.

Another limitation of the study was that the conclusions were based on the experiences of heterosexual individuals.

And the researchers accepted it.

– An important caveat is that our study focused on the effect of pornography among heterosexual men and women.

However, there is a critical need to conduct more studies and research to truly investigate the effects of pornography on non-heterosexual individuals, they wrote.

Meanwhile, another study turned out to be interesting – couples who watched porn together once a week reported a more satisfying sex life.

So, these can be a good idea for those who aspire to enrich their sex life with their partner, reports Swaddle.