5 Changes Your Body Faces After You Stop Having Sex

Break-ups. Work. Travel. Work travel. There are a lot of reasons your sex life may be stalled. And, like knocking over that first domino, your dry spell in the sack can affect your health in many ways—both good and bad.

Here are 5 things that can happen when you lose that loving feeling:

# More anxious

Sex helps people blow off steam. Scottish researchers found people who abstained from sex struggled to cope with stressful situations like public speaking, compared with those who had intercourse at least once over a 2-week period.

# Men, watch out for prostate cancer

Guys who stop having sex may miss out on the prostate-protecting perks of frequent trysts. A study presented to the American Urological Association found men who got it on all the time enjoyed along with the sex, a 20% drop in their risk for prostate cancer. One reason? Frequent ejaculations may remove potentially harmful substances from the prostate.

# Cold and Flu

Less sex may reduce your exposure to germs. Unfortunately, you’ll also skip the immune-boosting benefits of a weekly roll in the hay. Researchers at Wilkes-Barre University in Pennsylvania found people who had sex once or twice a week enjoyed a 30% boost in immunoglobulin A (IgA), compared with those who had sex seldom or never.

# Insecurities about your relationship

Not having sex takes a toll on your happiness, closeness, and relationship security, experts say. "Going without sex in a marriage can deliver a hit to your self-esteem, engender guilt, and decrease levels of oxytocin and other bonding hormones.

# Erectile dysfunction

Men who have sex infrequently are twice as likely to experience erectile dysfunction as men who do it once a week or more, according to a study published in the American Journal of Medicine. The study’s authors suggest that, since the penis is a muscle, frequent sex may help preserve potency in a similar way that physical exercise helps maintain strength.