The effect of fear of covid‐19 transmission on male sexual behaviour: A cross‐sectional survey study

Baran, Ozer; Aykac, Aykut

INTRODUCTION: In December 2019, cases of pneumonia, a new type of corona virus (SARS‐CoV‐2), began to be reported in Wuhan, China. We aimed to evaluate changes in sexual behaviour of men in the Covid‐19 outbreak in Turkey. MATERIAL‐METHOD: In our cross‐sectional and descriptive study, an online questionnaire evaluating sexual habits during the Covid‐19 outbreak was conducted on the men living in the Western Black Sea Region between 8 and 25 June6 2020. In the questionnaire, questions were asked to evaluate the sociodemographic data of the participants, their comprehensive medical history, their sexual preferences, their family and social life during the Covid‐19 outbreak, their concerns about Covid‐19 and their changes in their sexual behaviour after the Covid‐19 outbreak. RESULTS: A total of 536 participants with mean age of 38.6 ± 10.3 years were included in the study. 23.9% (128) respondents stated that they had the fear of transmitting Covid‐19 to their partner during sexual intercourse. It was observed that 19.4% (104) of the participants developed a fear of Covid‐19 transmission from her sexual partner during the relationship. While the number of weekly sexual intercourse of the participants before the pandemic was 2.34 ± 1.35, this number was found to be 1.54 ± 1.45 during the epidemic period (P = .001). CONCLUSION: The fear of infection and transmission of the disease to the partner that occurs during the Covid‐19 pandemic manifests itself in the form of a decrease in the frequency and quality of sexual intercourse.