As scarring as the consequences of reckless intimacy can be at times, the lack of any intercourse at all can also be a seemingly a matter of concern for women, say experts. Just another thing to worry about!
The result of no sex could be "vaginal atrophy" — a term that refers to a condition where vaginal walls start to thin. The condition affects menopausal women the most.
Also read: The 'dead vagina' syndrome
While depleting levels of oestrogen in women's bodies are responsible for the condition, the Sun reported that women who have been treated for cancer may also be susceptible to it.
The symptoms include discharge, burning, itching, difficulty in passing urine and pain during sexual intercourse, most of which are caused due to the decrease in the production of the female sex hormone oestrogen.
And as experts say, staying sexually active can help one combat the condition — the key idea behind it being reaching regular orgasms increases blood flow to the vaginal area.
London-based sex therapist Dr Louise Mazanti said: "It is very important that we have a healthy sex life with a partner or with ourselves. People very often say, 'I don't have a sex life because I don't have a partner'. But forget about that and have a sexual relationship with yourself."
Manzati added that regular orgasms are the combating force, so it doesn't matter if one is in a relationship or not. "It's about using massage and touching the tissue so that it becomes alive, the blood flows and the tissue becomes elastic," she explained. "It is really about exercising the tissue."
Mazanti also warned that lack of enough oxygen to the cells means that waste from the tissue can't be dealt with, which in turn causes tissue inflammation and the eventual outcome is vaginal atrophy.
Also, in case of toxins building up, the cells in the area do not get vital nutrients, which leaves the tissue thinner and a lot less healthy.
But it's not just physical problems like vaginal atrophy that can result from lack of regular intercourse. Manzati said losing the ability to have sex can affect women's mental health as well.
Also read: Men fake orgasms too
"When your ability to have sex and your desire to have sex decreases, it is a massive change in identity," she explained. "You start to question 'who am I now if I am not the sexual woman I used to be?' It can cause depression and an identity crisis and deep consideration of an existential nature."
So be it a "depressed" or a "dead" vagina, the key to reviving it just steady action!
