Sex helps chronically stressed mothers prevent metabolic diseases: study

Stressed mothers get new instructions from the love doctor.

A new study has found that sex may help mothers of young children ward off the harmful effects of stress, particularly metabolic disorders. In mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder, the results showed that those who were regularly sexually active had higher levels of healthy metabolic hormones than sexually inactive mothers.

Long-term stress puts a strain on the body and increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, depression, stroke and obesity. At the same time, research has shown that any amount of additional physical activity can help prevent such diseases.

“Given the damaging effects that chronic stress can have on metabolic health, it is important to explore protective factors. As a relationship researcher, I am particularly interested in how different aspects of our relationship experiences might serve such a protective function,” said study author Yoobin Park, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco.

She continued: “Sexual activity emerged as a promising candidate due to its stress-relieving effects and its positive impact on processes such as sleep, which can suffer from stress and in turn cause metabolic problems. To our knowledge, whether sexual activity can buffer the biological effects of stress has not been previously investigated. Therefore, this research was exploratory in nature and aimed to fill this gap.”

Researchers asked 183 women ages 20 to 50 with at least one child ages 2 to 16 to complete a stress assessment periodically over two years. During each assessment period, participants were asked to complete 7-day questionnaires and make clinic visits to collect health data, including blood samples for key metabolic indicators such as insulin, insulin resistance, leptin and ghrelin.

The last two surveys were the most important for the research because they were the only ones that focused on questions about sex. Mothers were asked each day whether they had been sexually active the night before, while also measuring related variables such as overall relationship satisfaction and daily physical activity levels. Those who reported having sex at least once during the week-long study period were considered sexually active. After data collection, a total of 101 women reported being either consistently sexually active or consistently inactive.

Mothers who cared for at least one child with autism were classified in the “high stress” group, all other mothers were assigned to the “low stress” group.

Overall, high-stress mothers were more likely to have higher insulin levels and insulin resistance and lower ghrelin levels than low-stress mothers, except when sexual activity was a factor. Compared to the low-stress group, sexually inactive high-stress mothers fared far worse than those who had more sex. In contrast, all sexually active mothers showed similar metabolic profiles regardless of stress group.

“In short, our results suggest that stress-related impairments in metabolic health were significantly reduced in sexually active individuals,” said Park, who told PsyPost that these benefits persisted regardless of participants’ exercise level and satisfaction with their relationship. “So, overall, while we need more research to understand the exact mechanisms by which sexual activity protects against stress-related impairments in metabolic health, our results suggest that the benefits of sexual activity extend beyond general activity or a happy relationship.”

The researchers hope their findings can contribute to a better understanding of the health benefits of sex. Park said: “We need more research in this area to gain deeper insights into the mechanisms underlying the benefits of sex and to understand the generalizability of its protective effects.”