Is “Normal” Porn Watching Affecting Your Manhood? by sexologist Maryline Décarie, M.A.

Is “Normal” Porn Watching Affecting Your Manhood?

I see it over and over with my clients.  Men come in for a consultation with complaints of lowered libido, delayed or absence ofejaculation, and problems with their erection not being as firm and full as it used to, or even no longer having erections at all.  The first thing I ask them is whether or not they watch porn on a regular basis and the response is invariably yes.

Porn addiction is the buzzword right now in men’s sexual issues and I often have a problem with the nomenclature.  Calling it an addiction means that we look at it from an addiction model perspective: Does your porn habit affect your social life? Your relationships? Your work or school performance? Your financial situation? Cause legal problems? If you answer yes to one of more ofthese questions then you have a porn addiction.

My issue with this perspective is that even if you have a “normal” level of porn consumption that doesn’t impact any of the above, your
porn habit could still have a detrimental effect on your sexuality.  In my opinion the “Do You Have A Porn Problem?” screening questionnaire
should look something like the following:

  • Do find you need to masturbate and climax more often than before?
  • Have your erections gotten less firm and full?
  • Do you have times were you cannot get an erection?
  • Do you find it takes longer to climax than it used to?
  • Are there times when you can’t orgasm at all?
  • Do you find it takes more stimulation to climax than it used to?
  • Do you find it difficult to climax from intercourse?
  • Do you find it difficult to climax from oral sex?
  • Do you find that some sexual images aren’t arousing at all?
  • Do you play porn imagery in your head during sex to help you climax?
  • Is sex with a partner not as satisfying as masturbating to porn?

If you answered yes to a few of the questions above, then it’s possible that your porn watching has begun to have an impact on your sexuality.  It’s called desensitization.  Basically the more you masturbate to porn the less real life events are able to elicit appropriate levels of arousal.

So what do you do?  One successful program had men stop all sexual climaxes for 90 days: no porn, no masturbation, and no sex.  This gives time to the brain to reset to its original standard. Obviously it’s easier said than done but with some information, support, counseling, and lots of willpower it’s possible and worthwhile judging by the testimonies.