Online porn is damaging men’s health, experts warn
A leading psychosexual therapist says that easy access to internet porn is causing a host of health problems for men.
Angela Gregory says the increase in the number of young men suffering from sexual health problems is due to internet pornography.
She says more and more men in their late teens and twenties are suffering from erectile dysfunction, after becoming addicted to X-rated content online.
Although there are no official figures, Gregory claims that a lot of the time the content is accessed via smartphones and laptops.
“What I’ve seen over the last 16 years, particularly the last five years, is an increase in the amount of younger men being referred,” she told BBC Newsbeat.
“Our experience is that historically men that were referred to our clinic with problems with erectile dysfunction were older men whose issues were related to diabetes, MS, cardio vascular disease.”
“These younger men do not have organic disease, they’ve already been tested by their GP and everything is fine,” she added.
“So one of the first assessment questions I’d always ask now is about pornography and masturbatory habit because that can be the cause of their issues about maintaining an erection with a partner.”
A recent survey found that nearly half of gay and bisexual men say they turned to pornography to ‘learn’ about gay sex.
The survey of 1,023 men who have sex with men (MSM) found that 82% reported that they got no education about gay sex in school.
Many of the respondents say they turned to porn – with 41% learning about anal sex through pornography, and 34% learning about oral sex through pornography.
Campaigners warn that using porn in this way can promote unsafe or risky practices, as well as unrealistic expectations.
13% of respondents said that they had unprotected sex after watching bareback porn – while 56% of respondents said they found bareback porn more “appealing”.
If you think you’re having a problem related to porn, Gregory advises talking to your GP.
