Stress, immunity, sleep: how sexual activity can help get through the crisis

The study CoviPrev conducted between March and November 2020 by Public Health France revealed a significant increase in depressive and anxiety disorders, the prevalence of which doubled between the end of September and November. Produced before the pandemic, the work of sexologist Magali Croset-Calisto “Less stress thanks to sex” published by Albin Michel highlights sexuality as a tool to fight against stress.

– Why Doctor: Your book is called “Less stress thanks to sex”. Inverse question, does stress influence sex?

Magali Croset-Calisto: Yes, and this question is at the origin of this book: why do patients who come for consultation have problems with sexuality? It’s because of their stress. I wrote this book before the pandemic but since it arrived, there is a tenfold effect of stress on health and sexuality. Stress is everywhere and all the more present since the Covid. What interests me is reversing the situation: no longer studying the effects of stress on sexuality but how sexuality helps to de-stress.

– Have you felt a change in your work since the start of the pandemic?

I have 50% more consultation. An OFDT study published last September suggested that there are 25% more depressive states compared to January 2020. This figure dates from September. Today, in February, I think we are at a higher high level with the confinements, the curfews. What I observe is that there has been an evolution from psychological support to psychiatry. There was a shift in much more serious states towards anxiety, phobia and disorders of all kinds.

– How does sexuality allow you to de-stress?

The effects of stress on sexuality are plural. We must not forget that stress is initially positive. It allows us to react to an attack. It becomes negative if it lasts too long or is too intense. Its effects are cardiovascular, it leads to musculoskeletal disorders, immune deficiency, burnouts, general fatigue, insomnia and addictions. Where sexuality will make it possible to reverse the trend, if it is experienced in well-being and fulfilment, it is because it will come to boost the mental faculties, improve concentration and allow a letting go when it is well lived. It will help strengthen the cardiovascular system and reduce the risk of stroke. A study conducted in Pennsylvania a few years ago showed how people who have at least 2 reports per week halve the risk of heart disease and stroke.

We also see that sexuality strengthens the immune system. Which is positive in relation to the virus since it increases the levels of antibodies in the body. It is also a natural antidepressant. These phenomena can be explained from a neurobiological point of view by an increase in dopamine during the act, endorphins and testosterone, including in women. These are three neurotransmitters that promote tone, well-being and energy. The increase in these molecules also lowers the level of cortisone which is the stress hormone.

Another positive point, sexuality improves sleep. It is not for nothing that we speak of small death after orgasm because it increases the rate of endorphins which promotes falling asleep, especially in men. It also has an anti-aging function because it allows cells to regenerate faster thanks to oxytocins, the hormones of attachment. It will also strengthen the muscles of the perineum and thus prevent incontinence.

– Can these benefits lead to medically prescribing sex?

This amounts to asking whether sexuality becomes a tool. It could, as is the case with sports today. I put a damper because sexuality is also a matter of love so it can not be ordered. I emphasize consent and well-being. You don’t have to force yourself.

– Does solitary sexuality bring the same benefits as multiple sexuality?

The difference with solo sex is the oxytocin that comes from cuddling and caring. Sexuality with a partner will be more complete than masturbatory sexuality. Skin-to-skin helps promote somatosensory structuring of the brain and will optimize cognitive development, as theorized by psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott. It means that one thinks more and better when sharing sensory experiences with someone. We develop greater confidence in ourselves and in others, as well as more global relationships and we improve our social adaptability. We see that supportive sexuality allows access to other things. Solo, it only offers something technical, practical, physiological. The language of touch is fundamental. We see it during a pandemic. People suffer because they feel isolated and no longer have human contact. This is where the anxiety is glaring.

– Is there a way of practicing sex that promotes stress?

There are many possibilities. We must avoid falling into modes of injunction to orgasm. What is important is to enjoy whatever the nature of the sexual experience. The goal is not orgasm but the path to pleasure. Penetration is not necessarily the goal of a sexual relationship. It can only be caresses, foreplay, slow-sex, tantrism.

– Orgasm contributes, as you have developed above, to release hormones which are beneficial. How can one obtain these benefits without orgasm?

You can enjoy in different ways. I wrote a whole chapter on orgasms in the book. There are orgasms produced by music and moreover a research team in Besançon is working on this. I have also studied the culinary orgasm. We see that the different stages of orgasm can be produced by something other than sexuality, another form of pleasure and the brain will send the same hormones as for sexual orgasm. This is called sublimation in psychoanalysis. We can find liberating pleasure as a sexual release in other areas than sexuality. I have followed great athletes who do trail running and they too have these same benefits. Great intellectual discoveries can also work. Victor Hugo wrote about it. The brain produces and triggers the same effects at the neurobiological level.

– The IFOP published on December 9 a survey which revealed improved sexual activity and fulfillment during the second lockdown. What is it due to?

This is due to the first confinement which was risky for all couples. Some have come closer and discovered. There was a gain in confidence, a strengthening of confidence. The 2^and confinement made it possible to put this initial awareness into practice. I put a damper on it because these confinements have also led to an increase in violence.

– What could be the consequences of a third confinement?

I am more pessimistic. People are fed up, they are under tension and want to get out of all this. There is impatience and irritability. A third confinement will surely produce other effects. Hence the interest of using sexuality as a tool to de-stress.

– What to do for singles who find themselves in a very complicated period?

We are witnessing a great boom in everything virtual, dating sites which have seen their connection triple in recent months. I call it extinity: intimacy and sexuality presented and experienced via screens. It developed a lot during confinements and curfews. People have relationships and reports through interposed screens. This sexuality is in between. This is another thing. The screens do not screen, they allow a psychic interaction thanks to the visual. It will allow to activate the cerebral zones and the neurotransmitters like a traditional report. The difference is that there is no skin-to-bit. It is between the masturbatory activity alone and the activity experienced as a couple in the presence. It’s an in-between. It’s quite new because we hadn’t seen it on this scale and we’ll see what it will induce on the sexuality of couples.

– What about people who no longer have sexuality?

This may be due to asexuality which concerns approximately 1.5% of the population. There are also people who suffer from not having a relationship. I send them back to touch, massages because skin-to-skin contact is essential, even if it’s not easy with the pandemic. We must find ways to transfer to other pleasures such as music, sport, gastronomy, meditation, cardiac coherence. There is support possible.