Source: List23.com.
USA – How do people who participate in BDSM experience less sexual distress than those who do not? Studies from Finland have shown that those who participate in BDSM, particularly those who use sexually submissive or dominant practices, tend to experience greater levels of sexual distress, and that those who do not engage in BDSM demonstrate an average increase in sexual functioning.
Nonetheless,aceștia.com reports findings as “strong, with most as negligible, because the relatively large sample size of those participants in this study [was] published in IJIR: Your Sexual Medicine Journal.”
BDSM involvesJA/BDSM, which is a term used for “Bondage, Discipline/Dominance, Submission/Sadism, Masochism”, is a group of different sexual role-playing practices including bondage, spanking, and other forms of “pain or sensation” play in which individuals engage in communications, trust and mutual consent, and is viewed as a form of consent that is ethical in which all activities are safe, logical, and rational.
BDSM is a subtype of paraphilia, which is when a person experiences an intense and persistent sexual interest that is not based on sexual activity with physically mature or “mature” human partners. While a majority of individuals engage in BDSM, studies suggest that up to 60% of these fantasies are related to BDSM. Those who engage BDSM are motivated to “assume control” over others or surrender power, thus embodying sexual dominance and submission.
Although many people practice BDSM, the connections between sexual functioning and BDSM behaviors (such as sexual submission and dominance) have never been fully explored. This is the reason why Sijia Huang and her colleagues chose to investigate these concepts.
The study drew data from three sources: the Genetics of Sex and Aggression project in Finland, which included monozygotic and dizygotic twins and their siblings, the first data being collected in 2006, followed by a second data collection in 2019. The final study participants were drawn from a population-based sample of twins provided by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency of Finland, a state-run agency in charge of monitoring the country’s population registry. This data was collected between 2021 and 2022.
There were 24,821 individuals analyzed with an average age of 34-35 years, and about two-thirds of the participants were women (88 percent of men, 79 percent of women, and 79% of men, respectively) identified as heterosexual.
Participants reported on Wettein experiences, Devotion experiences, Devouring Experiences, and Remembrance experiences, as well as Self-Asses and Refutation experiences.
They also used the Sexual Distress Scale to evaluate sexual distress. The same study looked at erectile function and early ejaculation using the International Index of Erectile Function Questionnaire-5 for men and the Checklist for Early Ejaculation Symptoms.The Female Sexual Function Index, with subscales of Desire, Arousal, Lubrication, Satisfaction, and Pain, measured the extent of sexual function by women.
The study found a significant link between sexually submissive and sexually dismissive behaviors, and those who reported a higher frequency of sexually submissive behaviors were more likely to report a higher frequency of sexually dominant behaviors. Both men and women who reported sexually submissive and dominant behaviors reported higher levels of sexual distress than those who did not report them.
Men who were sexually dominant/submissive reported experiencing reduced symptom of early ejaculation and slightly better erectile function, while women who were sexually dominant reported slightly better overall sexual function.
The prevalence of sexually dominant behaviors among men was not as high as women reported, but the associations were quite strong. The strongest results were seen in women who engaged in dominant sexual behaviors and the strongest in those who participated in dominant sexual activities. The remaining three associations were detectable because the study included a large number of participants. Younger individuals were slightly less likely to have participated in sexually dominant and submissive behaviors.
Our study authors concluded that adopting BDSM behaviors was associated with greater sexual distress, which was linked to improved ejaculation function in both genders, improved ejaculation in men, and improved sexual function in women.
The study sheds light on the correlation between BDSM practices and sexual functioning, but it is unclear whether any causal relationships can be established based on the data presented. While it is possible for BDSM practices to improve sexual functioning and increase distress, it is not clear that these relationships are strong enough to determine whether higher distress or improved sexual functioning lead people to become attracted to BDSM. Furthermore, all the associations are weak, and many of them are almost negligible in magnitude, indicating that there is little difference between BDSM practitioners and non-practitioners.
Sijia Huang, Patrick Jern, Caoyuan Niu, and Pekka Santtila authored a paper titled “Associations between sexually submissive and dominant behaviors and sexual function in both genders”.
