(Photo credit: QUT Marketing & Communication)
QUEENSLAND, Australia — Having sex may feel like a badge of honor for many men, but for others, it’s an act that, once finished, brings about intense feelings of sadness. In a new study, researchers for the first time ever have identified that women aren’t the only ones who can suffer from this emotional tidal wave in the bedroom, better known as post coital dysphoria, or PCD.
PCD occurs when a person has, for all intents and purposes, enjoyable consensual sex with a partner, but is met with “inexplicable feelings of tearfulness, sadness, or irritability” afterwards.
Researchers from the Queensland University of Technology say PCD had only previously been recognized in women, but after a survey of 1,208 men from numerous countries — including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Russia — it’s clear that the condition is more common among males than one might expect. In fact, four in 10 participants recalled suffering from PCD symptoms at some point in their lives.
“Forty-one percent of the participants reported experiencing PCD in their lifetime with 20 percent reporting they had experienced it in the previous four weeks,” says co-author Joel Maczkowiack, a masters student at the university’s school of psychology, in a release.
As many as 4 percent of the individuals, who voluntarily participated in the online questionnaire via postings on social media and psychological research websites, said they battle PCD symptoms regularly. Men acknowledged that statements such as “I don’t want to be touched and want to be left alone,” or “I feel unsatisfied, annoyed and very fidgety. All I really want is to leave and distract myself from everything I participated in,” applied to them when thinking about times they’d made love. Others described feeling “emotionless and empty” even though the sex was otherwise satisfactory.
“It is commonly believed that males and females experience a range of positive emotions including contentment and relaxation immediately following consensual sexual activity,” says co-author Robert Schweitzer, a professor at the university.
Schweitzer says that research has shown that couples that continue engaging in acts of intimacy after sex, such as talking, kissing, or cuddling, feel more satisfied in their relationships and strengthen the bond they share. Conversely, the emotional rollercoaster that comes with PCD could magnify any conflict in a relationship and wind up causing a bond between two people to break even further.
“The first three phases of the human sexual response cycle – excitement, plateau, and orgasm – have been the focus of the majority of research to date,” Professor Schweitzer said. “Yet previous studies on the PCD experience of females showed that a similar proportion of females had experienced PCD on a regular basis. As with the men in this new study, it is not well understood. We would speculate that the reasons are multifactorial, including both biological and psychological factors.”
The authors say the findings show sexual experiences for men could be more diverse than believed, and are important for clinicians to consider when working with men who may experience such symptoms.
The full study was published July 24, 2018 in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy.
Realizing that the closing queen laying next to you has herpes might have something to do with it.
It’s called CONSCIENCE, fools.
I get this after I masturbate 🙁
Then quit doing it. Another problem solved.
Well of course they’re sad, she wants to talk and he wants to sleep
I used to experience sadness before, during and after sex until I hooked up my divorce lawyer that’s 22 years younger than me.
It’s an anxiety attack…He’s thinking about the STDs he’s likely picked up from the tramp…
4 in ten got caught by there wife!
Because the act was useless. There will not be a new life created.
That’s cause we are freaking sad that it’s over and it’ll be a year for we get more. Women only like sex when they are dating a man, pre-marriage. After marriage it’s “we got the rest of our lives to do that.” At my age of 57 after a cancer bout and a heart attack bout I got nothing left anyway. But I sure as hell got tools and busting my asz around the house. Oh and there is that spider ???? killing thing. And someone has to drink the beer ????.
Please. The only sex you’ve had is with your RealDoll. Eat some more fried chicken and just speed up the inevitable. Thanks!
That’s because she doesn’t swallow.
Those must be the four that slept with a fat chic….
Alexander the Great also supposedly felt sadness after sex.
Another junk psychology study – 50% of which can’t be repeated and are therefore meaningless. The men are probably depressed over the inevitable #metoo allegations to follow.
Or sobered up, or realized that “hogging” isn’t as fun as his friends told him – or, my vote, all the above
MSGA …Make Sex Great Again !
With articles like this, and those showing every guy is capable of having his life destroyed over some regretful hag, it makes me want to buy stock in the companies making good quality sex robots. You had a great run, ladies, but your time is coming to an end as soon as they can program these robots to make a sandwich and get a beer to me
Gee….. I wonder why? DUH ! The only reason they feel that way after sex is that they are too unaware to realize that an orgasm without love and fidelity is as empty as masturbation. AND there is the crux. In fact I believe that having sex with a woman is essentially trying to make a pie out of Apples and Oranges. Men can get off is minutes, and women need as much as half an hour of four play to get them sufficiently aroused, as she believes it is the man’s responsibility to get her up and get her off.
Do you look into your lovers eyes when you orgasm, or do you close your eyes and imagine something more appealing to you in the moment. The fantasy may get you to the finish line, but it is just as empty, and lacking in emotional fulfillment. So, the bottom rung of that ladder my friends is that if you feel that way after sex, then YOU ARE IN BED WITH THE WRONG PERSON OR THE WRONG SEX !
LOL!
The comments section is way better than the article!
Man, people are weird……..
50% is around the percentage of people on crazy meds in the USA, how about Down Under?
What % of WOMEN cry (or want to) after thinking to themselves: THAT WAS IT!?