Does Pornography Cause Erectile Dysfunction in Young Men?

Lately, we’ve heard less about porn causing misogyny, rape, divorce, teen sex, and misery for women whose partners watch. Some porn critics still assert these claims, but the best research shows no causal connection between porn and any of the above.

The current accusation is that porn causes erectile dysfunction (ED) in young men. A cursory look at a recent Belgian study suggests this may be true. But a deeper dive into this study shows that pornography has no impact on ED risk.

Beware of Headlines

For the recent study, the researchers used social media and radio and newspaper ads to recruit 3,419 European men aged 18 to 35. Participants completed an online survey that asked 118 questions about their sex lives. The survey included the dozen questions that comprise the Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT), an instrument that purports to reveal porn/sex addiction.

The researchers found “a statistically significant correlation” between ED risk and high scores on the CYPAT. Porn bashers seized on this correlation and proclaimed: pornography causes ED in young men. That’s an arresting headline—but it completely misrepresents the study. The researchers actually found the opposite: “Frequency of pornography use did not have an important impact on the occurrence of ED.”

How could one study produce such apparently contradictory findings?

A Confusing Jumble

The new study’s many findings read as though they were compiled by a statistician on amphetamines. But sifting through the jumble, they largely confirm previous research about young men’s sexuality:

• Most of the participants’ sex involved self-pleasuring. Almost three-quarters (72 percent) admitted to solo sex several times a week. Ten percent self-sexed daily or more. This echos many other studies. The large majority of young men have sex with themselves frequently.
• To enhance solo sex, the young men watched pornography. Virtually all participants (99 percent) had self-sexed to porn, and 85 percent said their most recent solo sessions had included it. No surprise. Many studies corroborate this.
• Most respondents (82 percent) self-sexed briefly—five to 10 minutes—before finishing and returning to their lives. They averaged 39 minutes a week self-pleasuring to porn. This is consistent with statistics published by PornHub, one of the world’s largest porn sites. PornHub says 70 percent of its audience spends less than 10 minutes per visit.
• How did the respondents’ frequent solo sex affect their erections? The researchers concluded: “We found no evidence that masturbation frequency had any effect on ED.”

But other lifestyle and relationship factors did:

• As smoking and drinking alcohol increased, so did ED. Smoking causes arterial damage that reduces blood flow into the penis. Less blood means weaker erections. Alcohol impairs the nerves involved in erection. It’s the world’s leading drug cause of ED.
• Erection problems were rare solo, but during partner lovemaking, one-fifth of coupled participants (21 percent) reported some ED—usually to a modest degree. This, too, corroborates previous research. Masturbation and partner lovemaking are both “sex,” but they’re different. During self-sexing, you have only yourself to please, and your body provides immediate feedback about what’s arousing, which helps maintain erections. Partner sex is more complicated. It requires often-contentious negotiations about sexual repertoire and frequency. Compared with masturbation, partner sex requires more effort, which may cause chronic stress. As stress increases, so does the risk of ED. Many studies show that ED is more of a problem during partner sex than solo sex.
• Compared with those in committed relationships, men in new relationships reported slightly more ED. New relationships can be fantastic, but they’re also stressful.
• What about porn and ED? The researchers concluded: “Frequency of pornography use did not have an important impact on ED.”

Contradictory Findings?

At first glance, this study’s results appear contradictory. The researchers found a significant correlation between ED risk and high scores on the Cyber Pornography Addiction Test—but no association between ED and porn. Huh?

Actually, there’s no contradiction—just the fallacies behind the notion of porn/sex addiction. Advocates of the addiction model claim that for many, sex produces guilt, shame, and compulsive sex, notably self-sexing to porn. In fact, it’s neither sex nor porn that produce this guilt, shame, and compulsivity, but rather cultural sex-negative forces that demonize all sex outside heterosexual marriage. When men raised in sex-negative environments do what comes naturally, i.e, self-pleasure frequently to porn, they experience substantial stress. "I’m going to Hell!" That stress is often sufficient to raise the risk of ED.

As mentioned, the study included the Cyber Pornography Addiction Test, one of several assessment tools that claim to reveal porn/sex addiction. Actually, what they show is sexual shame caused by a sex-negative upbringing. The researchers called the CYPAT “validated.” That means it reliably reveals sex-related guilt. But none of these tests reveal porn/sex addiction. It doesn’t exist. It used to be a recognized diagnosis, but that ended in 2013 when the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) deleted “sex addiction” as a diagnosis.

The manual’s fourth edition (1994) listed “hypersexuality,” also known as “sex addiction,” as a mental health disorder. But during the decades since 1994, sex researchers have published many studies on sexual desire. This literature shows that normal libido varies from none to wanting sex more than daily. These studies greatly expanded our understanding of normal desire and coaxed the mental health community into viewing very frequent sex as nothing more than one end of the bell curve of normality. That’s why DSM-V deleted all references to “sex addiction.”

Meanwhile, the UN’s World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD) has taken a slightly different approach. The current edition, ICD-11 (2022), includes “sexual compulsivity,” but notes that it’s rare, and should never be diagnosed based on internet questionnaires such as the CYPAT.

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So yes, the men who scored high on the CYPAT exhibited a somewhat increased risk of ED. But the CYPAT doesn’t necessarily measure harm caused by pornography so much as it reveals is the impact of a sex-negative upbringing.

The One Exception

Over the years, the sex Q&A site I publish has received hundreds of inquiries from men saying: “I self-sex to orgasm watching porn, then afterwards I can’t get it up. Help!” To porn haters, this proves that porn causes ED. Actually, it’s simply a demonstration of men’s post-ejaculatory “refractory period.”

For a while after ejaculation—solo or partnered, with or without porn—men lose the ability to raise subsequent erections. That’s the refractory period (RP). It increases with age. Many teenage boys can raise new erections only minutes after orgasm. But with age, RPs lengthen. Men over 60 may have RPs lasting many hours. Neither solo sex nor porn causes this loss of erection ability. RPs simply reflect the physiology of the normal sexual response cycle.

I tell these worried men: Porn isn’t wilting your erections. You’re attempting to raise new ones during your refractory period. Try this: After solo sex to orgasm, attempt to self-sex again every hour or so to see how long it takes to raise your next erection. That's your refractory period at your current age. Don’t expect new erections until you’re past your RP. Repeat this exercise periodically to revise your expectations.

Porn Does Not Cause ED

The best evidence shows that even daily self-pleasuring with pornography does not cause significant erection impairment. The two causes of seemingly porn-related ED are:

• A belief that watching porn is sinful. Sex-negative upbringings may cause sufficient stress to reduce blood flow into the penis and impair erection.
• The refractory period. Until it’s over, men physiologically can’t raise new erections.