Leave it to the French to spend taxpayer money studying the sex lives of people based on body mass index (BMI). Results of the study, paid for by several French government agencies, were released today by an online subgroup of the British Medical Journal. More than 12,000 French men and women were randomly chosen and interviewed for the study with the results analyzed based on their BMI. Over half the group were normal weight, about a quarter overweight and the rest obese. Normal weight subjects totaled 6376, overweight subjects, 2448, and obese subjects, 761.
Study results confirm what many lay people would have speculated. Obese women, by 30%, are less likely to have had a sexual partner in the last year than normal weight women. Consistent with the frequency of sexual encounters, obese women were far less likely to seek birth control services and four times more likely to have an accidental pregnancy.
Among men there was little discrepancy between obese men and normal weight men in finding at least one sexual partner in the past year. However, obese men under 30 were much more likely to have sexually transmitted diseases and those over 30 were more likely to suffer from impotence and other sexual dysfunctions.
Kaye Wellings, professor of sexual and reproductive health with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine offered this explanation of the gender difference, “Maybe women are more tolerant of tubby husbands than men are of tubby wives.” A more classical explanation might examine the difference in attraction factors between the genders like stability and security versus physical attraction.
Experts involved in the study theorized that the sexual problems of obese individuals were likely the result of a combination of physical problems related to obesity, psychological issues such as low self esteem and social prejudices. Obese individuals are at higher risk for diabetes, depression and urinary stress incontinence. All impede sexual function. The obese are also more likely to suffer from skeletal and muscular, challenging their ability to function sexually.
According to the Brisbane Times, two thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. Much of the developed West faces similar problems with weight issues now described by many experts as pandemic. The study provides a scientific backdrop to the proposition that obesity impacts quality of life as well as being a source of life threatening illness.
[Author’s Note: in searching “couples in love” to find an image for this article, not a single image was of an overweight or obese couple. Social bias as reflected by internet search engines?]
Cross posted at Elijah’s Sweete Spot.
Contributor, aka tidbits. Retired attorney in complex litigation, death penalty defense and constitutional law. Former Nat’l Board Chair: Alzheimer’s Association. Served on multiple political campaigns, including two for U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield (R-OR). Contributing author to three legal books and multiple legal publications.