Does Yoga Improve Sexual Health?
Female Sexual Dysfunctions (FSD) are common and often do not get the attention necessary.
FSD is usually categorized into four major groups: low sexual desire, low arousal, lack of orgasm, and pain and must cause distress to the woman. At the present time, there are limited medication treatments for FSD, and current therapies are generally limited to hormone replacement (estrogen or testosterone), local creams, herbals, couples counseling, and lifestyle changes.
Any one of the FSDs can lead to low physical and emotional satisfaction.
A recent study looked at whether yoga has a positive effect on FSD, since it is becoming widely popular in Western societies. Of the 22 different positions evaluated some common ones included: kapalbhati, yoga mudra, halasan, dhanurasan and chakarasan. Yoga was advised to be performed for an hour twice a day, or as much as the participants could tolerate. Three repetitions of each pose were suggested. After yoga was completed, slow breathing and stretching were performed.
All domains of FSD were improved: desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction and pain, with an overall improvement of nearly 20 percent of all these domains collectively. Overall, 72 percent of women reported improved satisfaction of their sexual life after yoga.
Women over 45 noticed more improvement versus those under 45. The greatest improvement seen in women over 45 was in arousal and pain, and the least difference was in desire. In women under 45, the greatest improvement was in orgasm and satisfaction, and the least difference was desire. Lubrication and pain also improved significantly in women older than 45.
What is it about yoga that has a positive effect on FSD?
Yoga is known to have beneficial effects on lumbar muscle tone, depression, high blood pressure, peripheral neuropathy, anxiety, joint disease, stress, labor pain, epilepsy, pain, addiction, infertility, psychosomatic disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder and quality of life overall.
In general, stress reduction appears to be a common thread, as well as improved blood flow from stretching.
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Add a Comment2 Comments
Nice posting. Do you know about these yoga books?
http://www.yogavidya.com/freepdfs.html
February 25, 2010 - 1:55pmThis Comment
as a male who did bikram yoga with his partner, i can tell you that yoga improves sexual function across genders.
February 26, 2010 - 2:23am