GOOD VIBES ONLY

Is sex the missing wellness pillar?

- BY KATIE BEROHN

In the span of a few seconds, your body reaches peak tension relief. Your brain starts firing in all corners. A surge of feelgood hormones, like oxytocin and dopamine, floods your bloodstream. Headaches and pains might vanish, your immune system may get a boost, and you could experience better sleep. No, this isn't a luxury wellness treatment: It's what happens to your body when you orgasm.

The Kama Sutra, written around AD 3, was a guide for holistic well-being that focused on sexual pleasure as a piece of the larger puzzle. During the sexual revolution in the 1960s and '70s, women were encouraged to explore their sexuality.

But in the modern-day wellness sphere, sexual pleasure—in some ways the ultimate health hack—has left the chat. Stem cell infusions, cryotherapy, tech-forward tracking, biohacking, cold plunges—it's all pretty sexless. At even the most opulent and comprehensive wellness retreats, sexual wellness is rarely on the agenda.

“It’s fascinating to watch the way that people talk about wellness overall, but somehow sexual wellness never enters the conversation, or doesn’t enter it fully,” says Donna Oriowo, PhD, a sex and relationship therapist. The number of American adults having weekly sex has fallen to a 34-year low, according to an analysis of survey data from the Institute for Family Studies, which the pro-natalist think tank calls “the sex recession.”