QUEENSLAND, Australia — Having sex may feel like a badge of honor for many men, but for others, it’s an act that, once finished, brings about intense feelings of sadness. In a new study, researchers for the first time ever have identified that women aren’t the only ones who can suffer from this emotional tidal wave in the bedroom, better known as post coital dysphoria, or PCD.
PCD occurs when a person has, for all intents and purposes, enjoyable consensual sex with a partner, but is met with “inexplicable feelings of tearfulness, sadness, or irritability” afterwards.
Researchers from the Queensland University of Technology say PCD had only previously been recognized in women, but after a survey of 1,208 men from numerous countries — including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Russia — it’s clear that the condition is more common among males than one might expect. In fact, four in 10 participants recalled suffering from PCD symptoms at some point in their lives.
“Forty-one percent of the participants reported experiencing PCD in their lifetime with 20 percent reporting they had experienced it in the previous four weeks,” says co-author Joel Maczkowiack, a masters student at the university’s school of psychology, in a release.
As many as 4 percent of the individuals, who voluntarily participated in the online questionnaire via postings on social media and psychological research websites, said they battle PCD symptoms regularly. Men acknowledged that statements such as “I don’t want to be touched and want to be left alone,” or “I feel unsatisfied, annoyed and very fidgety. All I really want is to leave and distract myself from everything I participated in,” applied to them when thinking about times they’d made love. Others described feeling “emotionless and empty” even though the sex was otherwise satisfactory.
“It is commonly believed that males and females experience a range of positive emotions including contentment and relaxation immediately following consensual sexual activity,” says co-author Robert Schweitzer, a professor at the university.
Schweitzer says that research has shown that couples that continue engaging in acts of intimacy after sex, such as talking, kissing, or cuddling, feel more satisfied in their relationships and strengthen the bond they share. Conversely, the emotional rollercoaster that comes with PCD could magnify any conflict in a relationship and wind up causing a bond between two people to break even further.
“The first three phases of the human sexual response cycle – excitement, plateau, and orgasm – have been the focus of the majority of research to date,” Professor Schweitzer said. “Yet previous studies on the PCD experience of females showed that a similar proportion of females had experienced PCD on a regular basis. As with the men in this new study, it is not well understood. We would speculate that the reasons are multifactorial, including both biological and psychological factors.”
The authors say the findings show sexual experiences for men could be more diverse than believed, and are important for clinicians to consider when working with men who may experience such symptoms.
The full study was published July 24, 2018 in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy.
They should have also included the results for married men versus those who are not. I’m betting those who are hooking up with women are a lot higher than those who are in committed relationships.
For me, the sadness usually hits once I sober up…
Get up, get dressed, get out.
Let me go out on a limb and guess: the “sad” post-(hetero)-sex males were Brits…?
I think I might be part of the 4-in-10 myself…but many, many tests will be required to determine the scientific outcome.
Bang it and leave. This isn’t rocket science.
*coughs* ..fags
They know it will be at least another 4 weeks. That is sad.
Well, since I haven’t had sex since 1991, I guess I’m ok. I am prone to depression though.
It’s an evolutionary advance designed to avoid talking to the female more than necessary.
“I should have held out for her sister…” ~ Sad man
This is hardly inexplicable. The cause is self evident given one portion of the human brain drives us to engage in coitus while an entirely different section of our brain, a more analytic and thoughtful portion, is oftentimes able to assert itself . . at least briefly . . following completion of the act. Not all sexual encounters are able to withstand such scrutiny with impunity.
That’s why you should always leave the lights OFF after sex…..
4 in 10 men realize she was texting on her phone all along – after which she looks up and asks “Are you finished yet?”
It’s depressing because she gave you what you want, now she feels free (even obliged) to bitch and nag again… that’s why sex is called “shoosh-time”.
Here’s another possibility. People, male and female, have been so conditioned by TV shows, movies, commercials, magazine articles, etc., to believe sex is the be-all and the end-all of life, that there is an inevitable let down after the over-promised glory of sex. I would even go so far as to argue that we have lost our sexual identities–who we are as sexual beings–in the vast commercialization and politicization of our sexuality. There’s more to life than sex. I, for instance, have discovered model railroading.
Men live for sex and right after sex marks the furthest away a man will be from having sex again. That’s sad.
My wife was in a coma and the doctor says to me “if you have oral sex with her it might wake her up..I’ve seen it before” so I say “well if it will help the mother of my children then by god I will do it” I head into the room and come out 5 minutes later. Doc says “what’s wrong?” I say “its no good doc, she’s choking”
OMG I slept with THAT? And now she is smiling at me like that. This is bad.