Men’s Health Awareness Month: 5 Ways to Improve Sexual Performance

Men’s Health Awareness Month: 5 Ways to Improve Sexual Performance

It’s that time of year again; the month of November where we celebrate Men’s Health Awareness Month. A whole month dedicated to raising awareness about a wide range of men’s health topics. As our focus is on all things men this month, we can’t help but think about men’s sexual performance and the fact that many men are reluctant to seek help with increasing their own (and their partners) sexual pleasure. With this in mind, there may be a few simple lifestyle changes that can help to improve sexual performance - here are five of our favourite.

Get active 

An easy way to increase sexual performance this Men’s Health Awareness Month is to become more active. In the era of working-from-home and sitting down at desks with computers we sometimes forget to ‘move’ and can be stationary for most of the day. Adding in a 20 minute walk around lunchtime is a good way of not only breaking the day up, but also providing you with fresh air and exercise.  

Exercise is not only a good way of increasing feel-good hormones, like endorphins that can help reduce stress, anxiety or depression, it also can help to increase testosterone, tone the pubococcygeus muscles (these muscles help you stop the flow of urine), as well as reducing the risk of erectile dysfunction. Harvard researched 31,000 men over the age of 50 and found aerobic exercise resulted in a 30-percent lower risk of erectile dysfunction. 

Reduce stress

Stress is a natural part of life and most of us will experience stressful situations from time-to-time, however, for some people, they experience chronic stress that can lead to a whole host of physical and mental health problems, including a reduction in sexual performance. 

During stressful moments, your adrenal glands produce and release high levels of cortisol into your bloodstream - your body's natural fight or flight response. However, higher levels of cortisol can also mean a reduction in testosterone, which may mean a loss of libido or changes to blood flow to the penis, causing difficulty with getting or maintaining an erection. Not only this, but stress can also impact your self-esteem and make you feel less sexual arousal, which will also impact on your sexual performance. 

This Men’s Health Awareness Month, try finding ways to reduce and manage any stress you may be feeling. This could be in the form of relaxation techniques, such as breathing exercises, meditation to quiet the mind or yoga. 

If you are having relationship difficulties and that is impacting on your stress levels, it would be good to work through any relationship problems with your partner. If you are doing this on your own, it would be good to use communication techniques that are supportive of your relationship. If this is something that may be difficult, it might be worth speaking to a couples or relationship therapist who can help. 

Masturbate 

You might find this one a bit counterproductive - surely if you masturbate more, then sexual desire would reduce? But no, on the contrary - having more regular masturbation sessions may actually help increase sexual performance. If you struggle with longevity and find yourself orgasming quicker than you would like - teaching yourself to last longer through masturbation is a good way of doing this.

So for Men’s Health Awareness Month, give yourself the gift of orgasm. When you feel yourself about to orgasm, you can slow down or stop and gradually build this up over time - after a while, you can train yourself to last for longer - resulting in a more satisfying sex-life. 

Fruit and vegetables

Energy levels, good health, blood flow and hormones are all key players in maintaining a healthy sex-life. Therefore it’s vital to ensure you are providing your body with all the nutrients it needs for good sexual performance.

Cardiovascular health has been shown to be closely linked to sexual performance whilst high cholesterol is one of the main risk factors for heart disease. If your heart is not healthy, it’ll be harder to maintain stamina and endurance in the bedroom. If your heart is clogged, blood flow can be restricted to the penis, causing erectile dysfunction and other sexual problems. 

One of the easiest ways to improve men’s health and keep your heart and body healthy is to maintain a diet full of nutrient-rich foods, which includes plenty of fruit and vegetables. So if you’re not eating enough fruit and vegetables this Men’s Health Awareness Month - try starting now.

Have a sexual health screen

Data from the World Health Organisation has shown that 1 million sexually transmitted infections (STI’s) are acquired every single day - with STIs having a direct impact on sexual and reproductive health which can affect sexual performance. If you’ve never had a sexual health screen, it would be a good idea to get yourself tested - many STIs, like Chlamydia may not present with any symptoms at all. 

To protect yourself from catching a sexually transmitted infection, always wear a condom every time you have sex. 

As Men’s Health Awareness falls within the month of Black November, you can grab those sexual health essentials with 50% off between the 23rd - 29th November (excluding the RSE toolkit) - so it’s the perfect time to stock up on your favourite condoms & lubricants.

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