Long COVID Can Affect Sex Life; Here’s How

New Delhi: By now, it is a well-established fact that long COVID has a serious impact on both the physical and mental health of a person. Long hours of being cooped up at home has affected social and family life. What always remains under wraps is sex life. Not any more. The impact of COVID on sex life is being spoken about with more and more people willing to discuss their problems.

People suffering from long COVID symptoms are facing issues like anxiety, stress, trauma, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) while indulging in a physical relationship. Moreover, sudden development of trauma or stress is also seen.

According to Dr Om Prakash, Faculty Psychiatry at the Institute of Human Behavior and Allied Sciences, Delhi, COVID-19 has affected almost all the organs of the body. Due to this, both the physical and mental activities of a person have been affected.

In some patients, while having sex, these symptoms can appear in one of the partners affected by COVID-19. Many times, it also happens that anxiety, stress, or depression are not usually seen in normal conditions, but as soon as any physical or mental activity is initiated, symptoms of trauma trigger immediately. COVID-19-affected patients can also feel the symptoms in just normal physical activity like getting up, sitting, sleeping, eating, watching movies, Dr Om Prakash was quoted as saying by News18.

This was found in the meta-analysis, published in the sexology section on the National Center for Biotechnology Information. In the analysis, the database of 7 studies conducted in America, China, Italy, Turkey, the UK, and Northern Ireland was also included. After a study was done on 64 articles and 6929 people, it was found that people’s ability to have sex has decreased due to COVID-19.

Dr Omprakash further stated that the long Covid symptoms can last for about 2 to 3 months before a gradual decline.

Earlier, in a study published in the Journal of Endocrinological Investigation last year, Professor Emmanuele A. Jannini, of the University of Rome Tor Vergata and his colleagues found a definite connection between erectile dysfunction (ED) and COVID-19.

Dr. Judson Brandeis, a urologist and an expert in men’s sexual medicine told Medical Xpress, “The COVID-19 pandemic will result in widespread erectile dysfunction. Erectile function is highly dependent on pressurized blood flow, which starts at the heart, pulses through the large arteries, and then flows through the small blood vessels. Conditions like diabetes, high cholesterol, and smoking cause damage to the inner lining of the blood vessels, which causes ED. So does COVID-19.”