Alcohol and Your Sex Drive: What Are the Effects?

Have you ever used alcohol to lower your inhibitions and feel more confident with a sexual partner? Maybe you struggle with anxiety and use alcohol in the hope that it will help calm your nerves and allow you to have better sex. Or maybe you find alcohol helps you relax, socialize, and loosen up — including in the bedroom. Let’s cut to the bottom line: does alcohol make sex better? And does alcohol affect your sex drive?

While it’s not uncommon for people to mix alcohol with sex, drinking can have a significant effect on our sex drive. How does alcohol affect a man sexually? How are fasting and sex drive related? Is it common to have erectile dysfunction after quitting alcohol? And do orgasms help hangovers? These might be some of the questions floating around in your mind. In this post, we’ll explore how alcohol affects both female and male sex drive. Let’s dive in!

Alcohol and Sex Drive

First things first: let’s answer one of the most common questions: does alcohol affect your sex drive? Yes, it absolutely does! It can affect both men and women alike. And is wine an aphrodisiac? What about other “aphrodisiac” liquors, is it all a myth? Not exactly.

Perhaps you’ve heard people talk about a “loss of libido” from alcohol and are wondering what exactly this means. Libido is just a fancy word for sexual drive or desire. So if you’ve ever heard someone ask, “Does alcohol affect libido?”, they’re really just asking about sex drive.

Now, let’s get a bit more specific.

Alcohol’s Effect on Female Sex Drive

Alcohol can have various effects on female arousal, desire, responsiveness, and sexual behavior. Research suggests that small amounts of alcohol — one to two drinks — is associated with feeling more attractive and finding others more attractive, too. 

Females also tend to report feeling more desire for sex after consuming alcohol. This may be because alcohol increases levels of testosterone, a male sex hormone that plays a role in sexual desire. 

However, studies suggest that even though alcohol may increase female arousal, consuming too much can have a negative physiological effect and decreases genital response. The more we drink, the weaker the genital response becomes.

This is because alcohol can have a numbing effect on the genitals. Interestingly, one study noted that sex lasted longer after drinking alcohol, but this was likely due to decreased sensation. Many females also report taking longer to climax and having less intense orgasms after drinking. In some cases, alcohol can make it difficult to even orgasm at all. (While we’re on the subject, you might be wondering, do orgasms help hangovers? Science says they might — but they’re not a “cure.” Orgasms can help with hangovers by releasing endorphins, which boost mood and reduce pain, but they won’t directly cure dehydration or other hangover symptoms.)

Furthermore, whenever we get aroused, our body prepares for intercourse by increasing blood flow to genitals, causing them to swell and self-lubricate. Drinking too much alcohol can prevent these physiological responses from occurring and interfere with vaginal wetness, causing friction, discomfort, or pain when engaging in sexual activity. 

Alcohol’s Effect on Male Sex Drive

How does alcohol affect a man sexually? Males experience similar effects when drinking alcohol. As with females, small amounts of alcohol can increase feelings of sexual desire and arousal in men. But also similar to females, males tend to experience less sensation in the genitals after drinking alcohol. 

Alcohol can also affect our ability to get and maintain an erection. More specifically, alcohol decreases blood flow to the penis, increases angiotensin — a hormone linked to erectile dysfunction — and depresses our central nervous system, all of which makes it difficult to get an erection.

Furthermore, consuming large amounts of alcohol can make it difficult to orgasm and may cause delayed ejaculation — generally defined as taking longer than 30 minutes to orgasm. For some, excessive drinking might prevent us from ejaculating at all.

In general, the more we drink, the more severe these effects become. Over time, heavy alcohol consumption can turn a temporary condition into longer term impotence. In fact, research confirms that men who misuse alcohol are more likely to experience issues such as erectile dysfunction, unsatisfying orgasm, premature ejaculation, and loss of libido. 

You might be wondering, what happens if we quit drinking? Is it common to have erectile dysfunction after quitting alcohol? Perhaps — but rest assured, the effect is temporary. While it’s common to experience temporary erectile dysfunction after quitting alcohol as the body is adjusting to hormone and blood flow changes, over time sexual function typically improves and may even become better than before.

Does Alcohol Increase Risky Sexual Behavior?

Alcohol lowers our inhibitions, so it’s not surprising that it’s been linked to greater sexual risk-taking in males and females. However, risky sexual behavior appears to be more common in men, particularly when drinking in excess. 

For instance, one study suggests that males are more likely to engage in unprotected sex when they have been drinking alcohol. This can lead to the transmission of STIs, as well as unwanted pregnancies. 

Interestingly, more males than females reported being “less picky” when it came to choosing who to have sex with when drinking. This might have something to do with the “beer goggle” effect, or the notion that drinking makes other people more attractive. 

In fact, research has actually proven this to be a real thing: in one study, participants who had consumed alcohol rated images of people more highly for attractiveness than a placebo group. Even male fruit flies seem to get less picky about their potential mates after being given alcohol!

Is Alcohol an Aphrodisiac?

So should we consider alcohol to be an aphrodisiac drink? In some temporary ways, yes. Alcohol’s effect on libido — or sex drive — is very real. While having an alcoholic drink or two might help increase our sexual desire and arousal, drinking too much alcohol can negatively impact our sex life, causing reduced sensitivity, difficulty or inability to climax, or less intense orgasms. Drinking in excess also increases our chance of engaging in risky sexual behavior.

Alcohol, Fasting, and Sex Drive

While we’re on the subject, let’s briefly touch on another topic related to sex drive: fasting. Does fasting increase sex drive? Science says it might. Fasting may temporarily boost sex drive by increasing testosterone levels and improving focus, but the effects can vary based on individual health and fasting duration. However, combining fasting with alcohol can backfire, as alcohol disrupts hormone balance and can lower libido, negating any potential benefits from fasting.

The Bottom Line

All in all, excessive drinking can harm more than just our sex lives. If alcohol has interfered in your sex life — or any other aspect of your health and well-being — consider trying Reframe. We’ve helped millions of people cut back on their alcohol consumption and become healthier in every aspect of their life.