BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhuanet) -- A study in the British Medical Journal revealed that obesity has a damaging effect on people's sexual life, according to U.S. media reports Thursday.

There research was carried out by the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in Paris and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

"In public health terms, the study lends a new slant to a familiar message: that obesity can harm not only health and longevity, but your sex life," said Sandy Goldbeck-Wood, a British gynecologist specializing in psychosexual medicine.

"And culturally, it reminds us clinicians and researchers to look at the subjects we find difficult," Goldbeck-Wood added.

The researchers surveyed 12,364 men and women aged between 18 and 69 years, living in France in 2006.

The researchers found that obese women have four times as many unplanned pregnancies as healthy-weight women despite having less sex, and obese men are more likely to have sexual diseases despite fewer partners.

They also found that obese women are less likely to ask for contraceptive advice or use the pill, and obese men are more likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction.

"Because of social pressure or social stigmatization, obese women are less likely to engage in sexual intercourse and more likely to find sexual partners via the Internet. Because of their obesity, they are not comfortable meeting men through friends, through work, through parties," said Professor Nathalie Bajos of (INSERM), who is also the study's author.

(Agencies)