What You Need to Know About CBD and Sex
Can CBD make sex more enjoyable? If you’ve heard about the cannabinoid’s growing list of medicinal uses and wondered if it can also enhance your sex life, you’re not alone. It’s believed there are a couple of ways in which CBD can improve your sex life, and a growing number of manufacturers are harnessing its therapeutic properties in order to create products that will make sex better.
And while some cannabis-based products aren’t suitable for people who react badly to THC, hemp-derived CBD comes without the same risks of a negative psychoactive reaction, making these products accessible to an even greater number of consumers.
But how can CBD make sex more enjoyable?
How Can CBD Enhance Your Sex Life?
CBD and Performance Anxiety
First of all, research suggests CBD is great at alleviating sexual anxiety — a common problem people can experience when worried about disappointing their partner. According to sex therapist Claudia Six, sexual performance anxiety in women manifests itself as “difficulty getting interested in sex, difficulty getting aroused, or difficulty with orgasm.” In men, the most common symptoms are problems getting or maintaining an erection, or climaxing prematurely.
As a natural health practitioner, I helped women who were struggling to conceive and often found anxiety to be the cause of their difficulties. Whether they were suffering from performance anxiety or another kind of anxiety, they tended to conceive within a couple of months once it was cleared up, despite previously believing they had a more serious medical problem.
CBD’s anxiolytic properties — meaning it relieves anxiety — makes it great for treating conditions like these.
CBD and Painful Sex
Dyspareunia (pain felt during sex) is defined as a “persistent or recurrent genital pain that occurs just before, during or after intercourse.” Many women experience this sometime in their lives and suffer one or more of the following symptoms:
Pain during penetration (depending on severity, this can include pain when inserting tampons).
Pain during thrusting.
A burning or aching sensation.
Throbbing pain which remains after intercourse — sometimes lasting for hours.
Taking CBD vaginally has been proven to alleviate much of this pain, prompting its use in a number of products intended to combat the symptoms of dyspareunia. These are among a growing range of products intended to help people improve their sex lives.
Which CBD Products Can Improve Your Sex Life?
Skin Serums and Massage Oils
These are great at combating performance anxiety. For starters, the act of giving your partner a massage and taking more time with them should help them to feel more relaxed.
Using a CBD-based massage oil brings additional benefits. It is a natural pain-reliever, shown to alleviate the symptoms of stress induced by social anxiety, and its aforementioned anxiolytic properties enhance the sense of relaxation experienced by users.
Just be sure to pick a serum or massage oil without too many essential oils. Lavender and chamomile are okay, but ensure the concentration of CBD in your product is strong enough to fully appreciate its effects.
CBD Lube
Research on the benefits of CBD lube is still ongoing, but there is much promise. We already know that CBD’s anxiety-beating properties can help users feel more receptive to sexual activity — and as the lining of the vagina is incredibly absorbent, CBD’s effects can be felt more intensely when it’s applied as a lubricant.
On top of this, CBD is a vasodilator, meaning it increases blood flow. According to Kiana Reeves, a somatic sex expert and the Director of Education at Foria Wellness, "Increasing blood flow to the genitals and erectile tissue network is the basis for arousal and heightened sensation."
CBD’s ability to relieve muscle-tension also increases the potential of these lubes to make sex more comfortable; the pelvic floor, bladder, uterus and internal anal sphincter are all made of muscle tissue, and could therefore be relaxed by the use of a CBD lubricant.
Again, remember to check the ingredients. Many are made with an oil base, such as coconut oil, which will erode condoms. Provided you take this into account, there are several benefits to trying CBD lube.
CBD Suppositories
These are suppositories you can apply vaginally if you know that you’re going to have sex. They work by dissolving and acting as both a lube and a relaxant, and many women have found them to alleviate menstrual and pelvic pain.
As with lube, CBD is absorbed into the bloodstream through your vaginal wall and can begin working very quickly; CBD affects us by interacting with the endocannabinoid system in our bodies — regulating a range of things from our nervous system to the functioning of our organs — and it’s believed that the highest concentration of endocannabinoid receptors are found in our reproductive system.
Dr. Felice Gersh, founder of the Integrative Medical Group, cites this as a potential reason for CBD’s effectiveness in treating conditions such as vulvodynia, fibromyalgia and endometriosis, as well as menstrual cramps and painful sex.
Thus the benefits of CBD suppositories can extend beyond enhancing your sex life.
CBD Oil
Finally, if your primary need is to combat anxiety, there remains the option of CBD oil, which you can take in a number of different ways.
It’s thought that CBD inhibits our body’s uptake of serotonin — a hormone and neurotransmitter that helps to regulate our emotions — preserving it in our bloodstream for longer. So taking CBD oil increases the amount of serotonin available to our brain and improves our mood.
If performance anxiety is hampering your enjoyment of sex, consuming CBD oil could be a simple yet effective solution.
So when it comes to CBD and sex, there really is a lot that it can do. It can put you at ease, alleviate pain and remove some of the barriers that might otherwise impede one of life’s great pleasures. Whether your needs are mental or physical, there are products that may be able to help. CBD’s not a cure-all; but it could enhance your sex life.