A new study has shown that choking during sex could lead to brain damage. Known as ‘sexual strangulation,’ this act has been experienced by 58 percent of female college students. While some might think it’s harmless, research led by sexual and reproductive health researcher Dr. Debby Herbinick indicates otherwise. The study found that women who had been choked four times in the last 30 days experienced cognitive changes impacting their memory.
The study explains that sexual choking, which is a form of manual or ligature strangulation, has become prevalent among adolescents and young adults, disproportionately affecting women. The primary risk lies in starving the brain of oxygen. Being without oxygen for as little as 10 seconds can cause a person to pass out, while several minutes without oxygen can lead to brain damage. People engage in choking during sex due to the ‘pleasant or euphoric feeling’ that results when blood flow and oxygen return to the brain.
Published in Brain Behavior, the study compared two groups of women: one that had been choked within the last month and another that hadn’t experienced choking. Researchers found increased cortical thickness in several brain regions in the choking group. These areas are crucial for visual processing, working memory, language, object recognition, and motor control. The study suggests that hypoxemia/ischemia-induced reactive gliosis or astrocyte activation may cause this increased cortical thickness.
Dr. Herbernick emphasized the findings’ public health significance, noting that choking during sex is the most common form of strangulation. She expressed concern about teenagers and young people engaging in this behavior without full knowledge and proper communication about sexuality. Historically, even in kink and BDSM communities, strangulation has been seen as a rare or niche behavior requiring careful consent and education.
In 2021, a UK woman named Sophie Moss was killed after her partner, Sam Pybus, applied pressure to her neck during sex. Pybus was jailed for four years and eight months. The judge highlighted the danger of such conduct, whether consensual or not, due to the obvious risk of brain damage or worse.
