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Topics: Sex and Relationships, UK News, Health, Women's Health, Australia, US News
Ella Scott
Topics: Sex and Relationships, UK News, Health, Women's Health, Australia, US News
Experts have issued a warning over the dangers of a popular sex act that has ‘no zero-risk way’ of engaging with, as the UK government looks to ban it from adult films due to its ‘appalling rise’.
On July 3, an eye-opening study titled ‘Prevalence of Sexual Strangulation/Choking Among Australian 18–35 Year-Olds’ was published in the Journal of Archives of Sexual Behaviour.
The worrying report found that more than half of Aussie adults who took part in a survey had said a sexual partner had strangled them during sex.
But it isn’t just those Down Under who have been engaging in the act, with US research confirming that 64 percent of female college students admit they had also engaged in sexual asphyxiation, as per The Guardian.
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The Independent Porn Review believes that the popularity surge may be due to the act being normalised through the consumption of pornography. This is as well as perpetrators having the belief that it is safe to wrap their hands around their partner’s windpipe during sex because it is non-fatal.
However, according to Dr. Debby Herbenick, a public health professor at Indiana University, there is ‘no zero-risk way of engaging in choking’.
“Though deaths from consensual choking are rare, they do happen,” she warned.
Scientists at Bangor University and doctors at North Wales Brain Injury Service have found that with arterial pressure, people can lose consciousness in as little as four seconds.
If you are someone who has temporarily passed out during non-fatal strangulation (NFS), then your loss of consciousness is being categorised as a mild brain injury by experts, as per The New York Post.
“It’s a little bit like head injury in that injuries can accumulate,” explained Heather Douglas, from Melbourne University Law School. “Miscarriage can also result from strangulation, and can occur a week or months down the track. Strangulation can lead to a stroke. There can also be an incremental reduction in memory.
"Brain injury can also be incremental – getting a bit worse with each choking - and the person may not know they have suffered a brain injury," she added. "The effects of repeated strangling are insidious and build over time, like the effects of repeated concussions on footballers."
Douglas’ claims are backed up by a 2022 study that found strangulation was the second most common cause of stroke in women under 40.
Moreover, a paper published via the National Library of Medicine earlier this year found that women who had been strangled at least four times during sex in the last 30 days showed elevated levels of S100B in their blood.
S100B is a serious marker of brain damage, the outlet reported.
Other injuries that may occur include swollen lips, difficulty swallowing, nausea and vomiting.
In an effort to de-popularise the kink, the UK government announced last month that it would be ‘cracking down on the appalling rise of strangulation’ by banning pornography depicting the act.
The UK ban will focus specifically on 'choking porn', and aims to criminalise any ‘pornography depicting any act of strangulation’ through the Crime and Policing Bill.
Baroness Gabby Bertin claimed online pornography was fuelling the 'gravest issues in our society, from domestic violence to toxic masculinity to the mental health crisis among young people', and that it wasn't as 'properly scrutinised and regulated' as offline content.
Meanwhile, Alex Davies-Jones, a Welsh Labour Party politician, said that removing adult films depicting strangulation would ‘protect women and send a clear signal to men and boys that misogyny will not be tolerated’.
The government's blanket ban has been supported by Andrea Simon of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, who stated: "We welcome the government’s decision to criminalise the depiction of strangulation in pornography. Women cannot consent to the long-term harm it can cause, including impaired cognitive functioning and memory."
She continued: "This is a vital step towards recognising the role violent pornography plays in shaping attitudes to women and regulating an industry which promotes and profits from violence against women."
The government says that this is a vital step in their pledge to halve violence against women and girls as part of the Plan for Change.