Sports Science

Communication

Biosci. Biotech. Res. Comm. 9(4): 603-604 (2016)

Sexual activity before sports competition:

A systematic review

Shahram Mohaghegh*

Assistant Professor of Sports and Exercise Medicine, Loghman Hospital,Shahid Beheshti University of

Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

603

ARTICLE INFORMATION:

*Corresponding Author: Sh.mohaghegh@sbmu.ac.ir

Received 31

Oct, 2016

Accepted after revision 15

Dec, 2016

BBRC Print ISSN: 0974-6455

Online ISSN: 2321-4007

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Online Contents Available at: http//www.bbrc.in/

Recently I have read the paper entitled “Sexual activity

before sports competition: A systematic review” writ-

ten by Stefani et al, published in the journal Frontiers

in Physiology (2016). Since I have had previous studies

on this topic, I noticed some issues in study selection

and description of the aforementioned review as I will

explain.

The authors chose nine studies according to the inclu-

sion criteria mentioned in page 2 of the review. Accord-

ing to this criterion, only primary studies which evalu-

ated the impact of sexual activity on sports performance

were chosen. In Table 2 (page 5) there are details of the

studies included.

1. Authors of the second study cited in Table 2 (Dabbs

and Mohammed, 1992) measured salivary testosterone

concentrations (not blood testosterone as mentioned in

the table) in male and female members of four hetero-

sexual couples on a total of 11 evenings before and after

sexual intercourse and 11 evenings on which there was

no intercourse. These are just laboratory measurements

and their relationship with sports performance were not

described, so it is not a suitable study for a systematic

review according to the authors’ inclusion criteria.

2. As for the  fth study cited in Table 2 (Johnson, 1968),

the study group had 14 male athletes (not females as men-

tioned in the table). So, the description of this study in the

text (see page 3 of the systematic review), which discusses

the analysis of female athlete population compared with

that of the male participants, needs correction.

3. In the eighth study mentioned in the table (Sztajzel

et al, 2000), the study group were 15 high-level male

athletes, consisting of 8 team players, 5 endurance ath-

letes, and 2 weight-lifters (not well-trained male ama-

teur runners as described in the third page of the sys-

tematic review). Also, in this study (Sztajzel et al, 2000),

signi cantly higher differences were reported for post

maximal stress test heart rate at 5 and 10 minutes during

recovery period 2 hours after sexual intercourse, which

disappeared when maximal stress test performed 10

hours after sexual activity. So, according to the results

of this study, the recovery of an athlete could be nega-

tively affected if he had sexual activity approximately

2 hours before sport event; the important point which

is neglected and not explained in the systematic review.

4. Two studies (Anderson et al., 2001; Pupiš et al.,

2010) could be suitable studies according to the authors’

604 SEXUAL ACTIVITY BEFORE SPORTS COMPETITION BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Shahram Mohaghegh

inclusion criteria yet not included in the systematic

review. The participants and design of the  rst study

(Anderson et al., 2001) were mistakenly described for

Sztajzel et al study (page 3 of the systematic review) and

must be corrected.

5. In the sixth study (Meston and Gorzalka, 1995),

the consequences of acute exercise on physiological and

subjective sexual arousal in females were measured.

Once again, the relationship between sexual intercourse

and sports performance was not described in this study,

making it an unsuitable study for inclusion in this sys-

tematic review.

6. The seventh study included in Table 2 (Pour et al,

2013) is a narrative review not a primary study. Thus,

this makes it inappropriate to be included in the system-

atic review, according to authors’ inclusion criteria.

7. In

the fourth study mentioned in this table (Frau-

man, 1982), the relationship between physical exercise

and sexual behavior was investigated and it was con-

cluded that increased time spent in physical exercise

would be related with more frequency of sexual activity.

Again, the relationship between sexual intercourse and

sports performance was not described in this study, so

this paper is not a suitable study for inclusion in the

systematic review, either.

Strength assessment of the scienti c evidence of

the studies was performed using the Grading of Rec-

ommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evalu-

ations (GRADE) evidence system. But the scores are

not calculated and mentioned for each study and the

level of strength of evidence cannot be interpreted as

low without showing such measurements (accessible at

http://clinicalevidence.bmj.com/x/set/static/ebm/learn/

665072.html).

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Stefani L,G. Galanti,J. Padulo,N. L. Bragazzi,andN. Maffulli

(2016) Sexual Activity before Sports Competition: A System-

atic Review Front Physiol. 2016; 7: 246. Published online 2016

Jun 21.doi: 10.3389/fphys.2016.00246

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