The lockdown has been hard on people’s sex lives globally. During his address last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa told South Africans that kissing was a thing of the past as the world is faced with a new reality in the COVID-19 pandemic.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson went a step further and asked citizens not to have sex, while scientists from Harvard warned couples to wear masks while bonking, as having sex can spread the Coronavirus.
South Africans meanwhile made the hashtag #DangersOfNotHavingSex trend this week as they spoke of their struggles during this pandemic.
The repercussions of not being intimate, according to social media commentators, “make you angry for no reason, make you see food shaped as body parts, watching porn rather than series, and that sperm will turn into powder”.
In the UK, Johnson said although people could have braais in their backyards with up to six people, sex was an offence if it involved people from different households, and that lovers not living together could not stay over for the night.
“Close contact with people from other households means a much higher risk of transmission, and according to the scientific advice, we cannot safely allow people to see people they don’t live with indoors without the risk that the virus will spread. We recognise how difficult this is for people – particularly those who live alone, and we are keeping this under constant review,” state UK government regulations.
It’s not clear how this ruling will be administered as police are not exactly allowed to invade people’s property unless there is an actual crime in progress.
During South Africa’s initial lockdown level 5, a young woman was caught in her lover’s boot at a roadblock. He had tried bringing her to Jozi from Mpumalanga, breaking the Disaster Management Act.
The study found that abstinence and masturbation were ranked as low-risk sexual activities.
But even couples living together have been warned to take caution when it comes to hanky-panky. The Harvard study says the Coronavirus can be spread through sex and advised couples to avoid kissing, to bath or shower before sex, and to wear masks covering the mouth and nose during sex.
The study found that abstinence and masturbation were ranked as low-risk sexual activities. A senior medical expert at the Thai Disease Control, Veerawat Manosutthi, warned that patients who had overcome the virus should avoid getting intimate for 30 days.
He warned against kissing and advised that they should condomise when having sex for some time, even if they were free of symptoms.
His advice is based on a recent study, which found that some men had traces of the virus in their semen.
In the study, published in JAMA, the researchers wrote: “The presence of viruses in semen may be more common than currently understood, and traditional non-sexually transmitted viruses should not be assumed to be totally absent in genital secretions.”
But some experts say otherwise. Speaking to Sunday World, sexologist and relationship expert Dr Eve said though she understands that people are frustrated by not being able to have sex, there are no dangers of not having sex.
She said people in long-distance relationships should not take chances of cheating the system to meet and have sexual relationships during the pandemic because they will increase the risks of contracting COVID-19.
“Even though COVID-19 is not a sexually transmitted disease per se, it is a high risk if people get in contact as they can contract the virus,” she said. She said it may not be sexual intimacy that people were actually craving, but rather the loss of the physical touch and connection, which is natural for the body to crave.
“The medical danger is not of having sex as we know it, but about the loss of feeling connected, feeling seen, feeling known by your person that people hunger for, the danger is the impact on one’s mental health of not having the social connection – not sexual connection.”
She also said the loss of social – and not sexual connection – could impact on one’s mental health, noting those wanting sexual pleasure could masturbate. — Additional reporting by Meta Mphahlele
