Bovi Ugboma, the Nigerian comedian, recently implied that abstinence causes sexual health issues in women.
Bovi said abstinence affects women’s chances of “getting pregnant later in life.”
The comedian spoke when he featured on The Honest Bunch podcast where he talked about his parenting philosophy.
“They preach that you should save yourself for marriage and that you can’t have sex until you are married. However, when you look at how society is, by the time a girl is 22, that is when she is graduating,” he said.
“Then she will go for youth service and then she will find a job. While all this is going on, her hormones are bouncing against the wall, and you are telling her it’s not biblical and she cannot have sex.
“Now let’s go back to the Bible. What age were they getting married? They were teenagers. Because their hormones were hit to the wall. Don’t take my word for it. Go and do your research. Even our grandmothers got married very early.
“It’s a whole lot of discipline to wait before marriage now. I don’t know the science of it but when you don’t do what your body is pushing you to do, it has its effects later on in life.
“Too much abstinence has its side effects.”
DOES TOO MUCH ABSTINENCE HAVE SIDE EFFECTS?
Best Ordinioha, a medical doctor and public health expert, told CableCheck that while it is a common belief that sperm needs to be released in the body to maintain health, “the human body is not like that”.
“If it has a need, it produces. And if there’s no need, it stops producing,” he said.
“In the case of women, it is continuous. Because their body is programmed to release at least one egg every month. So there is no side effect.”
Ordinioha, however, said in medicine, health is defined broadly as physical, social, and mental well-being.
He said it is only when the other aspects are considered, that one may find side effects.
“Abstinence has to do with relationships. It has to do with social bonding. That erotic bond has its own advantage. Relationship with the opposite sex has its own advantage,” he said.
“So if there is abstinence, those social advantages will not be there. But there is no physical side effect. But there may be some social side effects.”
The expert also said it is a “complete lie” to say abstinence affects the chances of women to get pregnant.
VERDICT
The claim that abstinence cause fertility issues in women is misleading.
