Topics: Health, Science, Sex and Relationships, Community, Mental Health
A sexual health expert says there's no safe way’ to perform an increasingly ‘normalised’ sexual act, warning it’s way more ‘problematic’ than people are perceiving.
Statistics state that 69 percent of American men and 40 percent of American women view pornography online, with 61.3 percent of people admitting in another survey that they’d seen the act of sexual choking being depicted in adult videos.
Sexual asphyxiation, defined by Web MD experts as ‘the act of choking someone else or yourself for sexual pleasure’, falls under the umbrella of breath play.
This erotic act is prevalent in pornography, and it’s apparently spilling over into real-life sexual encounters, too.
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Today (July 7), The Guardian published an article that stated strangulation during sex had become ‘normalised’ to the point among young people that it’s no longer being viewed as ‘problematic’.
Speaking about the common sex trend that has the potential to cause brain damage and strokes, Jane Meyrick, a chartered health psychologist who leads work on sexual health at the University of the West of England, told the publication: “There’s no safe way to do it.
“No safe quantity of blood or oxygen you can cut off from her brain for fun.”
Last year, Meyrick said she went to a sexual health conference where scientific data was presented on how harmful sexual strangulation can be.
“Usually, at those conferences, people will be talking about the extremes of what everyone is getting up to in a very sex-positive way,” she recounted.
“When this was presented, you could feel the tension, the internal conflict, in the room, with professionals being unable to reconcile the gap between what they were hearing and their usual sex-positivity.”
According to a survey conducted by the Institute for Addressing Strangulation, established with Home Office funding in 2022 after strangulation became a standalone offence, over one third of 16 to 34-year-olds have experienced sexual strangulation.
This is compared to the 16 percent of 35 to 54-year-olds who have admitted to indulging in the practise, and the 3 of those 55 and above.
“Larger academic studies of college students in the US and Australia put it at much higher,” explained Meyrick.
“It has become normalised practice among younger people and not viewed as problematic and most older people have no idea.”
Sexual choking can have minor health risks such as broken blood vessels in your face, a hoarse voice, or trouble swallowing, according to Web MD.
However, other more serious health risks include depression, PTSD and even memory problems.
Death can also occur when there is too much pressure on your carotid arteries - those are the two large blood vessels in your neck that supply blood to your brain.
It’s advised that you seek emergency help if someone partaking in sexual asphyxiation loses consciousness, can’t breathe or can’t speak.
