July 16 (UPI) -- Watching more pornographic videos worsens erectile dysfunction, according to the findings of a survey presented Thursday at the EAU virtual Congress.
Viewing pornography also is associated with greater dissatisfaction with "normal" sex, with only two-thirds of male respondents rating sex with a partner as more stimulating than watching adult videos, the researchers said.
"We found that there was a highly significant relationship between time spent watching porn and increasing difficulty with erectile function with a partner," study co-author Gunter de Win, a professor at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, said in a statement.
For their research, de Win and his colleagues used an online questionnaire, which was advertised mainly to men in Belgium and Denmark through social media, posters and flyers.
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In all, 3,267 men replied to the 118 questions, which asked about frequency of porn watching and sexual activity with partners, among other topics, the researchers said.
The questionnaire was focused on men who had had sex within the four-week period before responding, which allowed the researchers to relate the effect of porn watching on sexual activity, they said.
"In our sample, men watch quite a lot of porn, on average around 70 minutes per week," de Win said.
In all, roughly 23% of male respondents 35 years old and younger reported that they had some level of erectile dysfunction when having sex with a partner, he and his colleagues said.
Those who reported more porn viewing reported more problems becoming aroused when with their partners, according to the researchers.
Overall, 65% of male respondents reported feeling that sex with a partner was more exciting than watching porn, the researchers said.
One in five respondents, or 20%, also felt that they needed to watch more extreme pornography to get the same level of arousal they had from previously viewing adult videos, they said.
"We believe that the erectile dysfunction problems associated with porn stem from this lack of arousal," de Win said. "There's no doubt that porn conditions the way we view sex."
The researchers cautioned that their research was a survey rather than a clinical trial, meaning that respondents might not be representative of the entire male population.
They said they plan to conduct a similar study on the effects of pornography on women.
