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A La Trobe University study of 8,656 Australians has found that both men and women may be negatively affected by marijuana when it comes to their sexual health.
Men were more likely to have trouble reaching orgasm when smoking cannabis daily and some were shown to be more likely to prematurely ejaculate. Daily female smokers were more likely than non-smokers to have two or more sexual partners in the previous year and were seven times more likely to be diagnosed with an STD. Science Alert has more details on the surveyed set of individuals.
It's a relatively small sample set, and there's something troubling about the findings on women for a couple of reasons. First, it seems that marijuana use may have an effect on how a woman maintains her sexual health - she becomes more likely to get an STD but has more sexual partners. Studies in the past have tied marijuana smoking increased sexual activity and sexual partners, and a higher likelihood of gaining STDs as a result of inconsistent contraceptive use.
Though there is a long standing battle about the use, risks, and value of marijuana, it's unclear just how these sexual health battles factor in. Risks of poor contraceptive use and increased vulnerability to STDs are often due to taking drugs or alcohol. Can heightened awareness and increased sexual health education help lower these risks?
One wonders how the correlation between marijuana and sexual partners will also be interpreted. Those who find multiple sexual partners - particularly for women - to be morally unsound, may be eager to correlate it with the use of marijuana. On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be enough information about the actual sexual relationships that were counted. How many of these sexual partners were one night stands or repeating instances? How many were initiated while under the influence? How did the smoking women feel overall about multiple sexual partners? Did they feel good, or ashamed? There's more research to be done here, but it's an interesting study nonetheless.
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