Sex

This Week in Sex: Birth Control on ‘Downton Abbey,’ and Not Much Sex in Japan

This week, the FDA warns of real Viagra in supposedly all natural supplements, a survey finds less than half of adults polled in Japan had sex in the last month, and we theorize about what method of contraception was available to the ladies of Downton Abbey.

This week, the FDA warns of real Viagra in supposedly all natural supplements, a survey finds less than half of adults in Japan had sex in the last month, and we theorize about what method of contraception was available to the ladies of Downton Abbey. Shutterstock

This Week in Sex is a weekly summary of news and research related to sexual behavior, sexuality education, contraception, STIs, and more.

Real Viagra in “All Natural” Sexual Health Supplement

The Food and Drug Administration released a warning this week to anyone who has used or is considering using Happy Passengers, sold online as a “natural” alternative to Viagra. In laboratory tests the supplement was found to contain sildenafil, which is the active ingredient in Viagra and other drugs used to treat erectile dysfunction. Advertised on Amazon and other websites as “safe for men of all ages,” even men with high blood pressure, the supplement is anything but. In a press release, the FDA said:

This undeclared ingredient may interact with nitrates found in some prescription drugs such as nitroglycerin and may lower blood pressure to dangerous levels. Men with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or heart disease often take nitrates.

This is far from the first time the FDA has found undeclared ingredients in sexual health supplements. In 2012, for example, the agency warned consumers about X-rock, a capsule that claimed to contain only herbal ingredients—including horny goat weed, ginggang root, and maca root. Lab tests found both sildenafil and hydroxythiohomosildenafil in the capsule.

The FDA warns that sexual health supplements, as well as products designed to facilitate weight loss and help in bodybuilding, are often inaccurately labeled as “all natural,” and that the agency cannot identify and test all products in these areas. Consumers, it says, should use caution when buying these products.

How Often Are the Japanese Getting It On?

A new report by the Japan Family Planning Association surveyed 3,000 adults in the country about their sexual health and behavior and found that almost half of the respondents had not had sex in the month prior to the survey.

Specifically, 48.3 percent of men said they had not had sex during that month, as did 50.1 percent of women. These numbers are about 5 percent higher than they were at the time of the last survey in 2012, which suggests the Japanese are having less sex.

The survey also asked participants why they were not having sex, and almost a quarter of women (23.8 percent) said they found sex bothersome. Married men, in contrast, blamed childbirth, with 15.7 percent saying they were no longer interested in sex after their wives gave birth. But it isn’t just older and/or married men who say they don’t really want sex; more than 20 percent of men between 25 and 29 expressed little interest in sex.

The study is worrisome to officials in Japan who are trying to increase the country’s sagging fertility rates. Population experts have been warning that if couples don’t have more children, there will only be 49.59 million Japanese by the year 2100 (there are currently 126.7 million people in the country, but a quarter of them are 65 or older). In one attempt to fix the situation, the government has told companies to insist staff leave work by 6 p.m., presumably to reduce tiredness and increase sex. According to the survey, however, getting off early is not enough—both men (21.3 percent) and women (17.8 percent) said they were too tired after work to do it.

Contraception Comes to Downton Abbey

I was surprised to learn that last week’s episode of Downton Abbey, the British period drama about an aristocratic family and their houseful of servants, included a reference to contraception—not because the show is so chaste (at its core, it’s a soap opera) but because women at that time had few birth control options and little access to those that did exist.

It is approximately 1923 on the show when Lady Mary sends her lady’s maid, Anna, to procure something that will prevent pregnancy. After the episode aired, Allyson Koerner at Bustle set out to determine what that something was. Condomsmade out of leather, paper, and animal intestines—have been around for hundreds of years, and they started being made out of rubber soon after Mr. Goodyear figured out vulcanization in 1883. But the episode seemed to suggest the method was for Mary and not her partner. According to Koerner, that would leave a sponge (either soaked in oil or a quinine sulfate); vaginal suppositories with cocoa butter, which were used between 1885 and 1960; a spermicide called Patentex, which was invented in 1906; or an early version of the cervical cap or diaphragm, which were first introduced in 1882.

Today’s women have far more choices, and our contraceptive methods are much more effective. What is striking, though, is how much easier it is for women of means around the world to access contraception now. In the episode, Mary left the illicit activity of procuring birth control up to her lady’s maid, and Anna was visibly scared that she’d be caught. Today, someone of Mary’s wealth could easily see a doctor for prescription methods or stop at a local drug store for an over-the-counter method, presumably without any embarrassment or shame.