Study: Sexual Dysfunction Afflicts One In Four Women Doing Porn

In a first-of-its kind study, a researcher at the University of Miami has conducted a survey uncovering what seems to be a hidden problem among porn performers: sexual dysfunction. While the prevalence of “wood problems” among male performers has long been no secret—as a 2015 article by the investigative site VICE made clear — the two-phase study by urologist Justin Dubin revealed some surprising findings not only for male performers, but for women as well. Dubin said he had the idea for the study, believed to be the first scientific look at sexual dysfunction among porn performers, from treating patients with sexual dysfunction in his own practice—dysfunctions that he found were caused primarily by performance anxiety stemming from what Dubin said is the increasing societal tendency to view porn sexuality as an ideal of how sex should also be experienced in everyday life. “In today’s society, the literature shows porn is seen as a picture of what sex should be like, and that this has increased stress in younger people,” Dubin told The Daily Mail. “I often see patients who are young, healthy, on paper they shouldn't have any sexual dysfunction, but they do. It's performance anxiety. This false idea of how they need to perform based on what they watch.” Dubin would generally tell his patients that what they see in porn presents an idealized, unrealistic picture of sexuality—even for the performers themselves. But he found that without evidence to back up his argument, he told the Mail, his patients simply did not listen to him. As a result, he was inspired to gather data on the actual sexual function, or dysfunction, experienced by professional performers. His initial study, on men in the industry, found that a surprising two-thirds suffered not merely from occasional “wood problems,” but from clinical erectile dysfunction that affected their private sex lives, as well as their on-camera performances. In the Daily Mail article, Dubin said he reached out to the Free Speech Coalition when he set out to study the adult industry. The article quoted Mike Stabile, communications director of the Free Speech Coalition, saying that FSC considered the study a good start because "the industry depends on performers, and we know that healthier performers are better able to do their jobs." Even more surprising, Dubin found that almost 60 percent of male porn performers used ED medications such as Viagra or Cialis not only to maintain erections in their work, but in their off-camera private lives as well—and that a staggering 84 percent of regular erectile medication users were young, between the ages of 20 and 29. While erectile dysfunction has indeed been increasing among young men in recent years, with about 30 percent of men ages 18 to 45 experiencing some form of ED according to one study cited by Dubin, the proportion of young men in the porn industry using ED meds appears to far outstrip their counterparts in the general population. But there were more surprises coming from Dubin’s study, when he presented the second phase at a conference of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. In a survey of 100 women in the porn industry—women with an average age of 34, indicating that many were seasoned porn veterans—Dubin found that 24 percent, or nearly one of every four, suffered from some form of female sexual dysfunction (FSD), both on the job and in their personal sex lives. The Mayo Clinic defines FSD as “persistent, recurrent problems with sexual response, desire, orgasm or pain.” Symptoms include low sexual desire, sexual arousal and orgasmic disorders — the inability to reach orgasm or become aroused at all despite a healthy level of sexual desire — and pain associated with sexual penetration or other vaginal stimulation. Dubin told the Mail that he hopes his findings will lead to better understanding of sexual dysfunction among performers, as well as for the rest of the population as well. “To compare yourself to them is unfair to you, it’s unfair to them,” Dubin told the paper. “Once we come to an understanding about their work, what they do, and how it affects them, that understanding can help with perception, it can go a long way to address this increasing trend in sexual dysfunction in both sexes.” Photo by See-ming Lee / Wikimedia Commons