If the results of the latest British Heart Foundation sex survey are anything to go by, it seems as though a heart attack is becoming the third wheel in many relationships.

When they surveyed heart attack survivors about their sex life a whopping 75% said that a heart attack was interfering with their sex life, 32% were having sex less often, and 19% had stopped having sex all together!

A big issue here was loss of sex drive and erectile dysfunction. 55% of women had lost all interest in sex, and not far behind 44% of men had lost interest too. The interesting thing was that they tended to blame both problems on their medication, thinking that it was just a side-effect, when in fact there was likely to be a physical cause.

Lets not forget that when a person has a heart attack it’s because the blood can’t flow freely enough to the heart, so there’s also a good chance that it can’t flow freely enough to the tools you keep in your pants either.

Of course we didn’t need a survey to confirm to us that this is an embarrassing subject to take to your doctor, but 44% of women didn’t seek any help, and neither did 26% of men. This is probably lower for men because everyone knows what viagra is and they probably wanted to get their hands on some.

The most important part of the survey? People who asked for help got it, and they returned back to their usual fulfilling sex lives. So don’t be too embarrassed to bring any problems to your doctor’s attention, they hear about it everyday, and where there’s a cause there’s often a solution.

Faye Prior (Researcher)

Source 

http://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-matters-online/may-june-2014/news/sex-survey.aspx