What happened to men when they stopped having sex?


Men, how long have you gone without having sex? And what happened to your body during this time? Let us talk about the changes that happen in your body when you stop having sex. What will happen to your sperms? Will your penis become smaller? What will happen to your libido? Will you stop getting erections? Will you get prostate cancer? These are some of the questions that I will be answering in this post.

Does your body stop producing sperms? 

Men not having sex


No. For men, sperms are produced continuously in the testicles whether you are having sex or not. So, where do these sperms go? A sperm is a cell that is produced in the testis.

They are then taken to the epididymis where they are stored and takes up to 72 days to mature. After which, they can now be released during ejaculation or during sex. If you are not having sex, the sperms will not build up and make your testicles very large.

Your body will automatically start removing them and recycling them. If sperms are not ejaculated, within a certain time, they are broken down and recycled back to the epididymis and the testis. You might also notice increase in wet dreams.

If you stay long without having sex, remember your body is still producing sperms but they are not being removed so they accumulate. This leads to build up of pressure in the epididymis and as a way of relieving this pressure, the body starts removing the sperms at night, what we call wet dreams. So wet dreams are common more in younger men but they reduce with age. But if you stop having sex, you could notice more increase in wet dreams than usual. 

Does your penis become smaller? 

No. Basically, nothing happens to your penis, but there is a theoretical and very rare condition called penile atrophy where there is a decrease in the size of a penis typically due to lack of use over extended periods of time. If you stay for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years without having sex or using your penis, then you might notice reduction in size. You know, that saying if you don't use it, you lose it.

But it will not get lost, the penis can reduce in size when you gain a lot of weight, particularly around the abdomen. When you gain weight around the stomach, what we call the pot belly, there is a fat pad that accumulates above the penis, making it seem shorter than it actually is.

Or when there is excess fat storage in the lower abdomen, it can push the penis deeper into the body, making it less visible. But that is a topic for another day. One thing that you might notice if you stay for long without having sex is weak penile muscles.

You know, sex is an exercise by itself. So there is a lot of energy that goes into that activity, by the way. So it is a calorie burner, and when you are having sex, you are exercising the muscles of the penis. Same thing to when you go to the gym. Over time, the muscles get bigger, you know, and you get a six pack and some biceps.

But when you stop going, the muscles don't go away immediately. But with time, they start withering or shrinking. Same thing.

When you have gone for long periods without having sex, you might notice slight reduction in the muscle tone, and again, this is not something you will easily notice. But you might notice that you are taking longer than usual to get an erection, and when you get one, it is less firm than it used to be. 

What happened to men's libido after prolonged sex abstinence?

Before we look at erectile dysfunction, let us see what happens to your libido. For most men, when they stay for a long period of time without having sex, their libido or that urge to have sex decreases. This is because of a hormone called testosterone. Sexual arousal, orgasms, increase the level of testosterone. Testosterone levels are highest in the morning.

Also, this is why men either wake up with an erection or get an erection in the morning or when they are urinating. When you stop having sex, the levels of testosterone slightly reduce, and so does the libido.

But while this theory is very true, men are also visual beings. Meaning that men are attracted to what they see mostly. Sometimes a man is seriously not thinking about sex, that maybe the last thing on his mind, and all of a sudden, a very beautiful woman with a big, big butt, you know, and all of a sudden, the blood that was flowing to the heart changes direction and starts flowing that organ, you know. Before you know it, things are up. 

But for women, it's a process. You have to make her feel nice, relaxed, light up the mood, you know, touching, touching here and there. There is a study that was done in 2008 that suggested that men who have sex less than once per week were two times more likely to develop erectile dysfunction.

But the downside of this study is that it was done on men who are above 50 years of age and not younger men. So I remain a little bit skeptical about this because, you know, as men age, also their sexual function decreases. So most of them get erectile dysfunction, and they end up having sex less and less, fewer times.

So them not having sex is because they are not getting erections and not the other way around. But as long as a man is having erections, whether they are having sex or not, they cannot get an erectile dysfunction. We said men get erections in the morning.

They get an erection during sleep because of increased blood flow to their penis. Men could also get an erection when they are urinating, and especially when their bladder is full. So in a day, a man could get like three erections, with or without even the thought of having sex.

This is a healthy way of maintaining sexual function in men. I am sure you have heard this, that men who stay long without having sex have a greater risk of getting prostate cancer. Studies have been done that have suggested men who stay for long periods of time without ejaculating have a greater risk of getting prostate cancer than men who ejaculate two to four times per week.

So it does not necessarily mean that you have to have sex. Most men actually opt for masturbation as a way of releasing that sexual tension. Now, masturbation should be a topic by itself, and we should talk more about the benefits and dangers of masturbation.

If you want to know what happens to women, and to be more specific, the vagina, when you stop having sex, then I am going to make that post later. So make sure to subscribe if you want to keep learning more with Lafiyata.