Sex: just as empty and unfulfilling for men as it is for women!
Researchers at the Queensland University of Technology have conducted the first-ever study on male post-coital dysphoria, a condition that leads to feelings of sadness, crying or irritability following sex.
Women have previously been found to experience PCD, but this is the first evidence that men suffer from it, too.
The findings deviate from the standard clichés about men’s sex drive and expectations from lovemaking, study authors explain.
“These assumptions are pervasive within masculine sub-culture and include that males always desire and experience sex as pleasurable,” study co-author Robert Schweitzer says in a statement. “The experience of PCD contradicts these dominant cultural assumptions about the male experience [of] sexual activity.”
The study polled 1,208 men from all over the world about their post-sex feelings. In addition to the 41 percent of guys who have experienced PCD in their lifetime, 20 percent of respondents said they felt sad or empty after sex in the past month. Four percent said they suffered from PCD on a regular basis.
Descriptions of PCD included: “I don’t want to be touched and want to be left alone”; “I feel unsatisfied, annoyed and very fidgety”; and “All I really want is to leave and distract myself from everything I participated in.”
There do seem to be ways to stave off these feelings of despair after sex.
Joel Maczkowiack, a master’s degree student who conducted the study with QUT professor Schweitzer, says that “couples who engage in talking, kissing and cuddling following sexual activity report greater sexual and relationship satisfaction,” adding that the stage after orgasm is “important for bonding and intimacy.”