Marijuana's unexpected effects on sex

By Naveed Saleh, MD, MSPublished September 10, 2026

Industry Buzz

It may slow the temporal perception of time and prolong the feelings of pleasurable sensations. It may lower sexual inhibitions and increase confidence and a willingness to experiment. [T]he regular female user reported a heightened sense of touch and physical closeness when using ... before sex.

—Authors, Sexual Medicine

The legalization and widespread popularization of marijuana has been followed by countless purported health and wellness benefits. Social media is rife with claims that marijuana’s purported health benefits extend to sexual health, including increased libido, arousal, and orgasm.

Research on the subject has grown in recent years, but much of the evidence remains observational, self-reported, and limited by inconsistent information on cannabis dose, formulation, and timing.^[]

Endocannabinoids do play a role in sexual function, however, with cannabinoid receptors mapped to several brain areas involved in sexual function, according to research published in Sexual Medicine.^[] Both cannabinoids and endocannabinoids interact with hormones and neurotransmitters that mediate sexual behavior.

Let’s take a look at what evidence exists on the relationship between sexual function and cannabis use. Increasingly, research suggests the effects are more complicated than a simple benefit-or-harm equation and may vary with sex, frequency of use, dose, and the sexual outcome being measured.^[]

Sexual frequency

In a population-based study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, researchers examined the relationship between cannabis use and sexual frequency. Based on nationally representative survey data, they found that after adjustment for covariates, male and female cannabis users reported more frequent sexual intercourse than those who never used marijuana. The researchers also noted a trend in which greater marijuana use was associated with increased coital frequency.^[]

“Marijuana use is independently associated with increased sexual frequency and does not appear to impair sexual function,” they concluded.^[] Importantly, the study was cross-sectional, so the results demonstrate an association rather than evidence that cannabis itself causes people to have more sex.

Sexual function in women

Researchers in a Sexual Medicine study surveyed levels of satisfaction in women with regard to drive, orgasm, lubrication, dyspareunia, and overall sexual experience, as well as the relationship between frequency of cannabis use and satisfaction.^[]

In total, 34% of 373 participants surveyed reported using cannabis before sex, with most noting increases in sex drive, improved orgasm, and decreased pain. No change in lubrication, however, was noted. After controlling for race, those using marijuana before sex had 2.13 higher odds of reporting a satisfactory orgasm compared with those who did not use marijuana.

In other results, those who used cannabis frequently had 2.10 times higher odds of reporting satisfactory orgasms compared with infrequent users, after adjusting for race and age. These results held regardless of whether cannabis was used before sex.

Since that study was published, newer evidence has strengthened the signal linking cannabis use with some aspects of female orgasmic function, although important questions remain.

A 2024 observational study of 387 women who used cannabis before partnered sex found that among the 202 women classified as having orgasm difficulty, cannabis use was associated with increased orgasm frequency, greater satisfaction, and less difficulty reaching orgasm. Seventy-one percent reported that cannabis made orgasm easier.^[]

A 2025 systematic review went further, evaluating 16 studies encompassing 8,849 women. All nine studies that specifically examined cannabis use before sexual activity reported improvement in at least one measure of orgasmic function, including frequency, ease, intensity, quality, satisfaction, or ability to experience multiple orgasms.^[]

But the findings come with a major caveat: Of the 16 studies in the review, only one was a randomized controlled trial, while 15 were observational, and many carried a high risk of bias. Researchers also noted substantial variation in cannabis dosage, timing, method of consumption, and study methodology.

The authors of the earlier study highlighted that the effects of cannabis on sex in women may be influenced by multiple mechanisms. Cannabis and the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, which regulates sex hormones, interact with each other. Furthermore, there are cannabinoid receptors in the hypothalamus involved in the regulation of gonadotropin-releasing hormone and oxytocin, both of which contribute to sexual functioning.^[]

“The question of how marijuana leads to these positive changes in sexual function is unknown. It has been postulated that it leads to improvement in sexual function simply by lowering stress and anxiety,” the authors wrote.^[]

They also proposed that altered perception of time, reduced sexual inhibition, and heightened sensory perception could contribute to the reported effects. Still, cannabis does not appear to improve sexual function for everyone. The 2025 review identified reports of impaired focus, inhibited orgasm, and situational difficulty reaching orgasm among some users.^[]

—Authors, Sexual Medicine

Sexual function in men

The relationship between cannabis and sexual function in men is less clear.

A 2019 systematic review and meta-analysis published in the American Journal of Men’s Health examined five case-control studies involving 3,395 healthy men, including 1,035 cannabis users. The overall prevalence of erectile dysfunction was 69.1% among cannabis users compared with 34.7% among controls, with an odds ratio of 3.83.^[]

However, the analysis was characterized by substantial heterogeneity, and the authors emphasized that additional longitudinal research was needed to confirm or refute the association and determine whether a dose-response relationship exists.

And subsequent research has complicated the picture.

A study of 325 men published in Sexual Medicine found that more frequent cannabis use was associated with slightly higher scores on the International Index of Erectile Function, including measures of erectile function, orgasm, intercourse satisfaction, and overall satisfaction.^[] Men using cannabis more frequently also had a numerically lower prevalence of erectile dysfunction, although that particular difference did not reach statistical significance.

The researchers cautioned that the clinical significance of the differences was likely small and that selection bias limited the generalizability of the findings. The study also could not establish that cannabis caused improvements in sexual function.^[]

Taken together, these conflicting findings mean the evidence no longer supports a simple conclusion that cannabis causes erectile dysfunction in men. Instead, its relationship with male sexual function remains unsettled, with frequency of use, dose, individual characteristics, comorbidities, and other factors potentially influencing the effect.

Cannabinoid signaling could plausibly affect sexual function through both central and peripheral pathways. Cannabinoid receptors are present in brain regions involved in sexual behavior as well as peripheral tissues involved in erectile function.^[] But plausible biological mechanisms alone do not establish whether cannabis improves or impairs erectile function in clinical practice.

Dose, timing, and formulation may matter

One challenge running through virtually all of this research is that “cannabis use” can mean very different things.

THC concentration, CBD content, dose, route of administration, frequency of use, timing relative to sexual activity, tolerance, concurrent alcohol or medication use, and the reason a person is using cannabis can all vary substantially between study participants.

The 2025 systematic review of female orgasmic function specifically identified the lack of high-quality data on dosage, timing, route of administration, and cannabis composition as important limitations of the current evidence.^[]

Similarly, the study of male cannabis users found no significant association between sexual function and either the primary method of cannabis consumption or whether products were THC-dominant, CBD-dominant, or contained a combination. But the authors emphasized that more research is needed to determine how dose, frequency, consumption method, and cannabinoid composition affect sexual function.^[]

Bottom line

Current evidence does not support a simple conclusion that cannabis improves sexual function in women while impairing it in men. Studies suggest it may improve orgasm and sexual satisfaction for some women, while findings on erectile function in men remain conflicting.

For now, physicians should treat cannabis-related sexual effects as highly individual, with dose, frequency, timing, and formulation likely influencing outcomes.

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