Sexual abstinence

Sexual abstinence or sexual restraint is the practice of refraining from sexual activity for reasons medical, psychological, legal, social, philosophical, moral, religious or other. It is a part of chastity. Celibacy is sexual abstinence generally motivated by factors such as an individual's personal or religious beliefs. Sexual abstinence before marriage is required by social norms in some societies, or by law in some countries.

Abstinence may be voluntary (when an individual chooses not to engage in sexual activity due to moral, religious, philosophical, or other reasons), an involuntary result of social circumstances (when one cannot find any willing sexual partners), or legally mandated (e.g. in countries where sexual activity outside marriage is illegal, in prisons, etc.).

While actual abstinence prevents pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, mere attempts at abstinence have little effect on the risk of either. Access to other forms of birth control, such as emergency birth control, is thus recommended.

The ancient world discouraged promiscuity for both health and social reasons. According to Pythagoras (6th century BCE), sex should be practiced in the winter, but not the summer, but was harmful to male health in every season because the loss of semen was dangerous, hard to control, and both physically and spiritually exhausting, but had no effect on females. This idea may have been merged with Zoroastrian ideas of good and evil in a philosophy known as Gnosticism, which influenced Christian and Islamic attitudes to sexual activity. But others stated that the Christian religion's hold on to the ideal of sexual abstinence prior to the appearing of gnosticism and Zoroastrianism and its roots are to be found in the Old Testament (which is the base of the New Testament) in which virginity was required by law and marriage was especially protected (see Deuteronomy chapter 22).

Throughout history, and especially prior to the 20th century, there have been those who have held that sexual abstinence confers numerous health benefits. For males, lack of abstinence was thought to cause a reduction of vitality. In modern times, the argument has been phrased in biological terms, claiming that loss of semen through ejaculation results in a depletion of vital nutrients such as lecithin and phosphorus, which are also found at high levels in the brain. Conservation of the semen allegedly allows it to be reabsorbed back into the bloodstream and aid in the healthy development of the body. Along these lines, the noted German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche spoke of the positive physiological effects of abstinence: "The reabsorption of semen by the blood ... perhaps prompts the stimulus of power, the unrest of all forces towards the overcoming of resistances ... The feeling of power has so far mounted highest in abstinent priests and hermits" (quoted by Walter Kaufman in his classic, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist, p. 222). Before the "sexual revolution" of the 1960s, it was commonly believed by members of the medical profession that numerous mental and physical diseases in men were caused primarily by loss of nutrients through seminal discharge, and that the deliberate conservation of this substance would lead to increased health, vitality, and intellectual prowess. This also applied to masturbation, which was also thought to lead to bedwetting and hairy palms.

Some advantages in favor of sexual abstinence were also claimed by Walter Siegmeister, better known as Dr. Raymond W. Bernard, an early 20th-century American alternative health, esoteric writer, author and mystic, who formed part of the alternative reality subculture. In his essay entitled "Science discovers the physiological value of continence" (1957) he states:

[I]t is clear that there is an important internal physiological relation between the secretions of the sex glands and the central nervous system, that the loss of these secretions, voluntarily or involuntarily, exercises a detrimental effect on the nutrition and vitality of the nerves and brain, while, on the other hand, the conservation of these secretions has a vitalizing effect on the nervous system, a regenerating effect on the endocrine glands [,] and a rejuvenating effect on the organism as a whole.

Historically, there has been a swing from the sexually liberal end of the Industrial Revolution to the chaste values of the early Victorian period.^{[citation needed]} This was then followed by a new puritanism from the late Victorian era to the mid-1900s.^{[citation needed]} This important transformation often colors discussion of sexual behavior in the later 20th century. World War I began a return to sexual freedom and indulgence, but more often than not, the appearance of conforming to the earlier moral values of abstinence before marriage was retained.^{[citation needed]} With the conclusion of World War II, the societal importance of abstinence declined.^{[citation needed]} The advent of the first oral contraceptive pill and widely available antibiotics suppressed many consequences of wide and free sexual behavior,^{[citation needed]} while social morals were also changing. By the 1970s, abandonment of premarital chastity was no longer taboo in the majority of western societies, and the reverse became true.^{[citation needed]} Some cultural groups continued to place a value on the moral purity of an abstainer, but abstinence was caught up in a wider reevaluation of moral values.