Cannabis on Valentine’s Day: What We Know About CBD and Sex
Using cannabis to enhance pleasure is something researchers are still trying to understand. Image Credit: By YuriyZhuravov on Shutterstock
It’s a manufactured and even saccharin, holiday, sure, but Valentine’s Day can also be a time to reflect on and appreciate the romantic relationships in our lives, to find a few hours to celebrate the person or people we love, and, possibly, if we are so fortunate, to have sex.
But what does cannabis have to do with all this?
As we know, CBD oil has proven health benefits with no side effects in treating medical conditions such as anxiety and depression, forms of epilepsy, sleep issues, for pain management of chronic pain, help with our immune system, and as an anti-inflammatory.
But recently, more and more researchers are starting to look at CBD’s sexual benefits.
Cannabis has long been taken as an aphrodisiac for enhancing sex due to the psychoactive effect of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the mind-altering compound in the marijuana plant that can result in what many report as extremely mind-blowing, primal sex. But with the increasing popularity of CBD oil and CBD products, you may be wondering does CBD work for sex, too?
The short answer is yes.
How Does CBD Work for Sexual Benefits?
THC and CBD (cannabidiol) are different in that CBD doesn’t get you high because it’s a natural phytocannabinoid compound in the cannabis plant that interacts with our body’s own natural endocannabinoid system. This is the system that buddies up with our nervous system to regulate things like appetite, sleep, mood, pain and pleasure—the last three being most relevant to our sexual experience.
How it works for sexual pleasure and enhancement is that cannabidiol CBD helps release our ”happy hormones” (serotonin and dopamine), which help us relax and get in the mood for sex. Then CBD gets our endocannabinoid system cell receptors and nervous system tingling and in tune to increase our pleasure response.
CBD’s anti-anxiety, mood enhancing, and pain relieving properties also prep our mind and sexual organs for better sex.
CBD For Men
Here’s the good news: Research suggests that CBD works for impotence and erectile dysfunction. How does CBD work? While studies directly examining CBD and erectile dysfunction are still in play, other studies show that CBD improves medical conditions that separately and together have a negative impact on erectile function.
Along with cannabidiol’s ability to help increase blood flow, repair tissue and boost energy, researchers believe a direct connection for CBD oil improving impotence, erectile dysfunction and male performance is promising.
CBD For Women
Sexual pain—particularly penetration pain—can be a big issue impacting sexual pleasure for women, especially post-menopausal women who may experience chronic pain from vaginal dryness and thinning of the vaginal wall due to depleted estrogen.
On top of that, changing hormones often result in low libido as well as emotional issues like sexual anxiety. While there are seemingly no direct studies, women anecdotally report that using CBD products helps greatly with all these issues to make sex much more comfortable and pleasurable.
CBD can also help improve blood flow to help stimulate women’s natural lubrication — there are many CBD-rich oils and CBD lubes on the market today to help with less painful and smoother sex.
CBD oil can also help with heightened pleasure at climax thanks to increasing those happy hormones, dopamine and serotonin.
How to Use CBD for Better Sex
With the exception of sexual lubricants, using CBD oil for sexual benefits is the same as taking it for any ailment or as a mood relaxer. CBD oil comes in tinctures, gel caps, vaporizers, topical creams and edibles. Because of its oily taste, most people prefer to use vaporized CBD oil or capsules, add it to food and drinks, or take edibles such as CBD gummies. Ask a trusted retailer about dosage.
A few final notes: First, CBD does not take effect immediately, so you will need to experiment with how far ahead of having sex to use it. You should ask your doctor before starting a CBD regimen, particularly if you are taking other medications with which ingestible CBD could interact. And last caveat: When it comes to cannabis lubes — whether CBD or THC options — be careful and cautious as the oil-based versions are often not latex-friendly and may cause condoms to become damaged or break.
