My doctor told me to avoid rigorous sex
I’m 46, and I had a heart attack last summer. My doctor told me to avoid rigorous sex. Am I relegated to a life of girl-on-top?
answer:
Absolutely not, although there are certainly worse fates. “Most patients can have any type of sex they want after a heart attack,” says John Elefteriades, M.D., chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital. The disclaimer, of course, is that you check with your doctor to gauge exactly how much vigor your heart can handle. But the statistics are on your side. A study of 1,663 men by Harvard University found that the odds of someone with coronary disease having a heart attack during sex were 1 in 50,000. Another study of 918 men by the University of Bristol found that sex can actually reduce the risk of a heart attack; the participants who had “high orgasmic frequency” through non vigorous sex (the kind that doesn’t cause sweating or loss of breath) halved their risk of a coronary event.
To be clear, no one is recommending that you start swinging from the chandeliers. But the bottom line is that “sex is exercise, and exercise is good for the heart,” says Elefteriades. If you experience chest pain or shortness of breath, though, cool your engines immediately.
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