COMMENTS: A rare Egyptian study. While the study reports porn use increasing parameters of arousal, the long-term effects of porn don’t match its short-term effects.
The study shows that watching pornography has a statistically positive correlation with years of marriage. This was in agreement with Goldberg et al. [14] who stated that pornography is highly addictive.
There is a highly negative correlation between satisfaction of sexual life and watching pornography as 68.5% of positive watchers are not satisfied with their sexual life.
Pornography increases masturbation among 74.6% of watchers, but it could not help to reach orgasm among 61.5% of them. Pornography watching increases the incidence of divorce (33.8%) (P = 0.001).
Conclusion: Pornography has a negative effect on marital relation.
Table from the study tells the story:
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Gaber MA, Khaled HN, Nassar MM. Ef
Menoufia Med J [serial online] 2019 [cited 2019 Oct 22];32:1025-9. Available from: http://www.mmj.eg.net/text.asp?2019/32/3/1025/268864
Abstract
Objective
The objective of this study was to study the effects of pornography on married couples in their sexual and social live.
Background
Pornography has long been a major problem in our society, but since the arrival of the internet it has grown to proportions no one could have imagined.
Participants and methods
The study included 300 married men and women selected randomly with age ranging from 20 to 50 years having regular sexual intercourse. They were asked to fill a self-report questionnaire. The study was carried out in the outpatient clinics of Obstetrics/Gynecology and Dermatology of Menoufia Faculty of Medicine, Sirs Elyan and El-Bagour General Hospital. Internal validity and item domain of the questionnaire were assessed using Cronbach’s α statistical analysis to assess the six main domains of the questionnaire: sociodemographic characters, source of pornography, partner watching pornography, sexual relationship, satisfaction with sexual life, and social life. The results showed high internal consistency and reliability of the questionnaire of Cronbach’s α of 0.93 and high item domain and domain total correlation (r = 0.86–0.97).
Results
The prevalence of positive watchers among participants was 43.3%. The main source of watching was internet (47.6%). Male participants watching pornography were higher than female participants (69.2 vs. 30.8%) and 46.2% of pornography watchers said that coital frequency after watching increases only on the watching day. Watching pornography increases with increase in the years of marriage was the opinion of watchers (70%). Sexual desire increase with watching pornography in 53.1% of watchers. Also, lubrication always increase with watching was the opinion of 56.2% of watchers. Pornography increases masturbation among 74.6% of watchers, but it could not help to reach orgasm among 61.5% of them. Pornography watching increases the incidence of divorce (33.8%) (P = 0.001).
Conclusion
Pornography has a negative effect on marital relation.
Keywords: children pornography, marital relations, porn, porno, pornography addiction, pornography effects, pornography prevention, sexual life, sexual satisfaction, source of pornography
Introduction |  |
With the advent of digital technology and World Wide Web, materials containing sexual content have become ubiquitous [1],[2] due to its new unprecedented availability [3].
Pornography may be a book, a magazine, a segment of writing or speech, a painting, a photograph, sequence of images, a film, a sculpture, a theatrical play, or some other combination of words and images [4]. Also, it is defined as written or pictorial matter intended to arouse sexual feelings [5].
In the Arab world, especially in the last years pornography either hard core, which contain real sexual relation or soft core in the form of video clips with sexual content increases in number. The sexual content is mainly formed of verbal and visual sexual insinuation; it also contains actors seemingly engaging in sexual intercourse, nudity, sexual aggression against women and sexual harassment [6]. Although internet access per se may not negatively affect family relationships [7], pornography is thought to have a particularly large effect on one’s attitudes and behaviors. The importance of studying the impact of pornography on family relationships has intensified as the internet has dramatically increased the accessibility, anonymity, and affordability of pornography [8]. Pornography use can negatively impact marital relationships by devaluing the importance of monogamy, decreasing satisfaction with the sexual performance, affection, or physical appearance of one’s partner, and by decreasing the desire for sex with one’s partner [9]. Finally sexuality is an integral part of human being’s well-being. Proper sexual functioning is one of the most important components of the quality of life [10].
Participants and Methods | |
The current study is a cross-sectional study that was approved by the Dermatology and Andrology Department and the Ethics Committee at Menoufia University in December 2015. The study started on January 2017 and ended on July 2017.
The study included 300 married men and women with age ranging from 20 to 50 years having regular sexual intercourse, Who were selected randomly from the outpatient clinics of Obstetrics/Gynecology and Dermatology of Menoufia Faculty of Medicine, Sirs Elyan and El-Bagour General Hospital. Each of the men and women was asked to fill the questionnaire (a self-report questionnaire). The questionnaire was written in English and translated into Arabic to ensure its understanding by all participants regardless of their level of education.
The total number of patients who were asked to fill the questionnaire was 311.
Eleven refused to fill the questionnaire and 300 accepted it with a response rate of 96.5%.
The questionnaire was designed by the investigators based on previous literatures.
To ensure that all gathered information was kept confidential and the participant will be anonymous, each questionnaire was handed to the participant in an open envelope and after filling it the participant sealed the envelope and put it in a basket containing other sealed envelopes.
Exclusion criteria were presence of medical conditions affecting female or male sexuality, for example, chronic inflammatory disease affecting the external genitalia, neuropsychiatric diseases being illiterate, etc.
The questionnaire included the following items: epidemiological data, age, educational level, residence, occupation, duration of marriage, assessment of participants percentage who watch pornography in comparison to participants percentage who do not watch pornography, assessment of frequency of pornography watching among positive watchers, detection of the main source of pornography watching, assessment of effect of pornography on sexual desire, orgasm and vaginal lubrication, assessment of effect of pornography on sexual act (masturbation practice and coital frequency), assessment of effect of pornography on partner of the participant and on participants when they know that their partner are watching porno materials, assessment of pornography on sexual satisfaction, and assessment of effect of pornography on social life.
Two types of statistics were done: descriptive statistics, for example, number and percentage for quantitative data and analytic statistics for example, χ2 was used to study the association between two qualitative variables. A P value of more than 0.05 was considered statistically insignificant and a P value of less than or equal to 0.05 was considered statistically significant. A P value of less than or equal to 0.001 was considered statistically highly significant.
Statistical analysis
Data were collected, tabulated, and statistically analyzed using an IBM personal computer with statistical package for social sciences, version 20 (SPSS IBM Statistics, Armonk, New York, USA) where the following statistics were applied.
Results | |
The study includes 300 married men and women (150 each). Male participants watching pornography were higher than those nonwatching males and female participants watching pornography was lower than those nonwatching females (P < 0.001).
It was found that the most of pornography watchers had age range from 30 to 40 years than nonwatchers who distributed all over the age range from 20 to 50 years (P < 0.001). As regards educational level, most pornography watchers were university educated than nonwatchers (P < 0.05). The majority of watchers was working (44.3%). Most of the pornography watchers were living in urban areas (51.2%) compared with nonwatchers (48.8%) (P < 0.05). The duration of marriage (range: 10–20 years) was higher among pornography watchers (63.3%) than nonwatchers (36.7%) (P < 0.001) [Table 1]. The main source of watching pornography among watchers was through internet (74.6%) than TV (16.2%) [Table 2] and [Figure 1].
 | Table 1: Distribution of sociodemographic characteristics among the studied sample as regards watching pornography |
 | Table 2: Source of pornography among watchers |
 | Figure 1: Source of pornography among watchers. |
Overall, 75% of pornography watchers said that coital frequency after watching increases only on the watching day, whereas only 25% of nonwatchers see that. Watching pornography increases with the increase in the years of marriage was the opinion of 79.8% watchers and only 20.2% of nonwatchers. Sexual desire increases with watching pornography was the opinion of 71.1% of watchers and 28.9% of nonwatchers. Also, lubrication always increases with watching was the opinion of 96.1% of watchers, whereas only 3.9% of nonwatchers said that. Pornography affects masturbation among 77.6% of watchers but it could not help to reach orgasm among 33.3% of them (P < 0.001) [Table 3]. Pornography watchers were not satisfied with their sexual life (68.5%) compared with nonwatchers (31.5%) [Table 4] and [Figure 2].
 | Table 3: Effect of watching pornography on sexual relationship |
 | Table 4: Satisfaction of sexual life |
 | Figure 2: Satisfaction with sexual life. |
Discussion | |
With the advent of digital technology and World Wide Web, materials having sexual content have become ubiquitous [1],[2] due to its new unprecedented availability [3]. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of pornography on married couples in general and to assess its effect on sexual relation either sexual desire, orgasm, or vaginal lubrication. May be, it is for the first time that pornography and its effects on married couples is evaluated in the Arab world.
In the current study, male participants tend to watch pornographic materials more than female participants (60 vs. 26.7%), which was in agreement with Shek DT, et al. [11].
The current study suggests that although pornography consumption may be present across the life span. There are higher amount of consumption among younger population’s especially emerging adults 30: 40 years (52.4%) and 20: 30 years (44%), which was in agreement with Wright et al. [12].
In the current study, there is a statistically positive correlation between educational level and positive watching of pornography which was in agreement with Wright et al. [12].
Watching pornography was common in partners living in urban areas (51.2%) with a statistically significant difference, which was in agreement with Askun and Ataca [13], who found that persons from rural areas were found to be more traditional and conservative in their attitude and behavior regarding sexuality and in following pornographic materials.
The study shows that watching pornography has a statistically positive correlation with years of marriage. This was in agreement with Goldberg et al. [14] who stated that pornography is highly addictive. This was also in agreement with Doidge [15] who said that the body develops tolerance to dopamine released while watching pornography by time.
In this study, the source of pornography watching is the internet (74.6%), which is in agreement with Haggstrom-Nordin et al. [16] who found that the primary source of pornography was the internet and cable television.
There is a highly negative correlation between satisfaction of sexual life and watching pornography as 68.5% of positive watchers are not satisfied with their sexual life. This was in agreement with Bergner and Bridges [17] who found that there is a decrease in sexual desire and satisfaction with pornography users.
In the current study, there is an increase in coital frequency with watching pornography in positive watchers which was in agreement with Carvalho et al. [18], who found that after watching erotic materials there is enhancement in subjective sexual arousal and increase in engagement in sexual intercourse.
There is a statistically positive correlation between watching pornography and increase in sexual desire which was in agreement with Peterson and Janssen [19] who stated that watching pornographic materials increase one’s sexual desire. In contrast, Graham et al. [20] found that some women report a decrease in sexual desire after watching pornography because it is aggressive toward women and is a degradation to women by considering them as sexual objects.
There is a statistically positive correlation between watching pornography and increase in lubrication which was in agreement with Poulsen et al. [21], who found that watching pornography produces a high level of sexual arousal.
There is also a statistically positive correlation between watching pornography and masturbation which was in agreement with Haavio-Mannila and Kontula [22], who found that persons with higher use of pornographic materials have a high rate of masturbatory activity, which also in agreement with Cooper et al. [23], who found that persons who use online sexual activity to deal with stress also report having increased masturbatory activity.
In the current study although pornography increases desire and frequency of intercourse, it does not help the user to reach orgasm. This was in agreement with Zillman [24] who found that habitual use of pornography leads to greater tolerance of sexually explicit materials, thus requiring more novel and bizarre materials to achieve the same level of arousal and interest, which was also in agreement with Henderson [25], who found that materials which was used to produce arousal and stimulation no longer does so and therefore more materials and longer viewing time and more degrading materials are sought to achieve the same degree of stimulation and satisfaction.
Conclusion
Pornography has long been a major problem in our society but since the arrival of the internet, it has grown to proportions no one could have imagined. Family members are increasingly exposed to a variety of media. This exposure to media can have both positive and negative effects.
A similar study should be done with larger sample sizes, such as population-based studies, to further understand the patterns of sexual behaviors in Egypt. Healthcare facilities should provide effective educational and counseling services on sexual life to newly married couples.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
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