Just How Good Is Sex For Your Skin?

A good release can help balance hormones, flush out cortisol, boost collagen production and slow the aging process.

While having sex, you’re typically not thinking about how great your skin is going to look afterward. But like other good-for-you activities, the benefits of having sex extend far beyond whatever pleasure is derived in the moment. In fact, having sex has both physical and psychological effects that can benefit skin health for women, in particular, and can even make you look younger.

Alisa Vitti, founder and CEO of Flo Living and a functional nutrition and women’s hormone expert, explains that it’s important to first define what “having sex” means, because not all sex is equal. “For women, the sex that benefits us is clitoral stimulation and it turns out that achieving climax is not necessary to achieve all the health benefits,” Vitti explained. “Most people confuse the words orgasm and climax. They are two distinct things. Climax is the big finish. Orgasm is everything else, and the longer you stretch out orgasm, the more nitric oxide and oxytocin you will produce, which triggers all the other benefits,” Vitti said.