Postcoital dysphoria (“post-sex blues”) or Postcoital depression (PCD):Well-being is deeper than people know both as singles and married. Sometimes, people feel deep sadness or agitation after consensual sex. The medical term for these feelings is postcoital dysphoria (PCD), but some call it the “post-sex blues.” In some cases, people become tearful or depressed after orgasm. In others, they become argumentative with their partner. These feelings occur even if the sexual encounter has been satisfying and enjoyable.
Not much is known about PCD, but research published in the journal Sexual Medicine in 2015 has revealed how common it is among women.
Post-coital tristesse (PCT) or post-coital dysphoria (PCD) is the feeling of sadness, anxiety, agitation or aggression after sexual intercourse. Its name comes from New Latin postcoitalis and French tristesse, literally "sadness". Many people with PCT may exhibit strong feelings of anxiety lasting from five minutes to two hours after coitus.
The phenomenon is traced to the Greek doctor Galen, who wrote, "Every animal is sad after coitus except the human female and the rooster." The philosopher Baruch Spinoza in his Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione writes, "For as far as sensual pleasure is concerned, the mind is so caught up in it, as if at peace in a [true] good, that it is quite prevented from thinking of anything else. But after the enjoyment of sensual pleasure is passed, the greatest sadness follows. If this does not completely engross, still it thoroughly confuses and dulls the mind." With respect to symptoms in women, one study involved an epidemiological survey of post-coital psychological symptoms in a United Kingdom population sample of female twins.
PCT is a separate phenomenon from the refractory period. PCT is different in that it occurs only after sexual intercourse and does not require an orgasm to occur, and in that its effects are primarily emotional rather than physiological. Some doctors prescribe serotonin reuptake inhibitors, such as fluoxetine, to treat PCT. After two weeks, people reported that, "while sex was less intensely pleasurable, no emotional crash followed."
One study reported that almost half of female university students reported PCD symptoms at least once in their lifetime. The study also reported that there appeared to be no correlation between PCD and intimacy in close relationships.
Another study reported that among a sample of 1208 male participants, 40% of them had experienced PCD once in their lifetime and 20% reported experiencing PCD in the four weeks preceding the study. This study also reports that between 3-4% of the sample experienced PCD symptoms on a regular basis. According to the same study, PCD among males is associated with current psychological distress, sexual abuse during childhood, and with several sexual dysfunctions.
The world is so obsessed with how often, when and where people are having sex, that it’s easier to forget to address how we feel after. And for the people hit with an explained sadness after sex, it can be a frightening and lonely experience.
Post-coital dysphoria, or post-coital tristesse, is the term used to describe feeling of tearful, sad, anxious, aggressive, agitated or generally melancholic after sex. What is most interesting about the condition is that it happens after sex that is consensual.
“Even when I was single, the post-sex depression morphed into a different shade of empty. I always attributed it to the fear of being abandoned,” Jerilyn, 27, told Mic of her episodes of post-coital dysphoria.
“I started to wonder if something was being taken from me every time I had sex, even though I enjoyed the act itself.”
Denise Knowles, sex therapist and counsellor at relationships charity Relate, told The Independent: “It’s not uncommon to feel sad after sex. It’s not necessarily due to a trauma or because they’re regretful: it doesn’t have to mean anything sinister is going on.”
She explained that it comes down the explosion of hormones in the body after sex, including endorphins, oxytocin and prolactin.
“Having sex is a hugely intimate act and an orgasm releases lots of wonderful feel-good bonding hormones. Those hormones drop following the peak of an orgasm, and as you separate from the closeness that brought it about, a sense of sadness can follow.”
“You go from absolute joy and pleasure to being separated. That in its own way can cause women, and some men, to feel a bit sad. But it’s an organic biological function which happens to a greater or lesser extent to many people.
“It usually means that you’re in a very heightened state of emotional arousal and the come-down on the other side of that is what naturally happens.”
A recent study into the little-understood phenomenon revealed that 46 per cent of 230 female participants experienced post-coital dysphoria “a few times” in the past month. Researchers found that the intimacy of the relationships didn’t affect this.
This chimed with a separate study in 2011 that found that a third of women feel depressed even after sex that they described as satisfactory. Scientists believe this may have an evolutionary function.
But Knowles stresses that regularly feeling down after sex should not be regarded as normal or something to
“However if you’re feeling upset and it’s not just about the natural separation after sex, that needs to be explored. It could be indicative of a bigger problem. If you’ve got these feelings sex therapy and or counselling can help. It might be a problem in the relationship rather than the sexual relationship."
Researchers from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia asked 230 female university students to participate in a survey about their experiences with PCD. The women ranged in age from 18 to 55 with an average age of 26 years.
Forty-six percent of the women said they’d experienced PCD in the past. About 5% said they’d had symptoms over the past month. And about 2% reported having PCD “always” or “most of the time.”
However, PCD was not linked to intimacy in close relationships, the researchers reported. Experts aren’t sure why PCD happens. It may be that the bonding with a partner during sex is so intense that breaking the bond triggers sadness. Childhood sexual abuse may play a role as well.
The QUT researchers noted that their findings may not apply to other groups, as their participants were heterosexual, mostly Caucasian, and university students. Additional studies with larger, more diverse groups may provide more clues. It is also uncertain to what extent postcoital dysphoria affects men.
"You'd think that most people would feel happy after sex . You'd hope so, anyway, but there's an infliction that causes some women to suffer an immense sadness after intercourse. We're not talking about anything untoward. The sex will be consensual, and yet some women endure something called post-coital dysphoria, or tristesse."
The condition means women might feel sad, anxious, aggressive, agitated, or simply melancholic immediately after having sex – even if the sex was particularly good (in fact, it's even more likely in this case). It can be a lonely and frightening experience for women. The issue has been explored by Sophie Saint Thomas in Mic. She spoke to Jerilyn, 27, about the affliction. "Even when I was single, the post-sex depression morphed into a different shade of empty. I always attributed it to the fear of being abandoned,” Jerilyn, who only gave her surname, said.
"I started to wonder if something was being taken from me every time I had sex, even though I enjoyed the act itself." A recently study into the condition found that 46 per cent of the 230 female participants experienced post-coital dysphoria more than you think – "a few times" in the month prior to the research. Importantly, researchers found that intimacy or the significance of the relationship didn't seem to matter. It's not just brought on by 'one night stands' as you might assume.
Another study from 2011 revealed similar results. Around a third of women said they felt depressed after sex – even when it was "satisfactory". Sex therapist and counsellor at relationships charity Relate Denise Knowles told The Independent : "It’s not uncommon to feel sad after sex. "It’s not necessarily due to a trauma or because they’re regretful: it doesn’t have to mean anything sinister is going on."
Denise said that it could be down to the explosion of hormones in the body that are prompted after sex, including endorphins, oxytocin, and prolactin. "Having sex is a hugely intimate act and an orgasm releases lots of wonderful feel-good bonding hormones," she said. "Those hormones drop following the peak of an orgasm, and as you separate from the closeness that brought it about, a sense of sadness can follow.
"You go from absolute joy and pleasure to being separated. That in its own way can cause women, and some men, to feel a bit sad. But it’s an organic biological function which happens to a greater or lesser extent to many people."
Scientists think this could be an evolutionary function – something to keep people together so that they're more likely to have sex again, and therefore reproduce. But there's a lot more to discover.
Whether we want to admit it or not, many people have felt it—that unexplainable sadness after sex. If you’ve experienced a feeling of depression after sex, you can be rest assured that it’s a lot more common than you’d expect (even if the sex is awesome). Seriously, according to a study published by the Journal of Sexual Medicine, up to 46 percent of women reported experiencing feelings of anxiety, agitation, melancholy or sadness after sex at some point in their lifetimes.
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