The consumption of alcoholic beverages appears to influence people’s sexual feelings. It appears to make people, especially women, less shy about sex. In fact, scientists found that consumption of local alcoholic beverages, including goskolo, burukutu, pito and ogogoro, affects sexual function in all genders, particularly suppressing sexual arousal in women.
Researchers in the study suggested that consumption of these alcoholic beverages could affect males and females in different ways. While it may cause arousal, desire and responsiveness when men mix alcohol with sex, its effect is the opposite for women.
These traditional beverages contain different alcoholic contents, depending on the source and the fermentation process. It ranges from an ethanol content of 2.5 percent to 55 percent. They are usually from grains, juice or fruits.
The active ingredient in ogogoro is ethanol, whose concentration within the drink is very high; the alcohol content of local ogogoro ranges between 30 and 60 percent, while pito and burukutu are traditional Nigerian alcoholic beverages brewed with red or white sorghum malt and/or maize.
In animal studies, they found that pito-administered albino rats did not exhibit any sexual disinhibitory effect in male rats, but significantly inhibited female sexual motivation. The trend suggests a gradual but mild suppression of the quantity and quality of sperm cells in male abino rats.
In the burukutu-fed albino rats, the trend suggests mild to moderate sexual disinhibition in the male rats, while female sexual motivation suggests suppression.
The ogogoro-fed albino rats depict a trend that suggests a significant sexual disinhibition effect in the male rats, while female sexual motivation suggests an inhibitory effect, while in goskolo-fed albino rats, the trend initially suggested an inhibitory effect.
There are growing concerns regarding the production, distribution, and uncontrolled use of alcoholic beverages in our society today.
For the study reported in the Journal of Pharmacy, the researchers tested the effect of these traditional alcoholic beverages on the sexual behaviour of 60 albino rats.
The animals were randomly divided into five groups of six animals per cage and were administered with various doses of four freshly brewed local alcoholic beverages—goskolo, burukutu, pito, and ogogoro—for a period of 30 days.
On day 31, the animals were placed in a transparent glass cage and after an adaptation period of 10 minutes, sexually receptive females were presented to the males one at a time by introducing them into the cage.
The total time spent by each female rat was 12 minutes, while the sexual behaviour parameters were observed.
They declared, “The effects of some samples of some traditional alcoholic beverages on the sexual behaviour of male albino rats suggest that ogogoro and burukutu produced disinhibitory effects, while rats fed with pito suggest that there was no change in the inhibition usually experienced by non-consumers of alcohol.
“In addition, the study showed that pito, burukutu, ogogoro, and goskolo lowered physiological arousal and decreased sexual motivation in female albino rats.
“In other words, the consumption of these alcoholic beverages tends not to result in disinhibition of sexual behaviours nor does it facilitate sexual encounters, but rather suggests an increase in the threshold for achieving disinhibition and sexual arousal.
“It means that alcohol ingestion in females does not affect arousal and disinhibition as found in males, but rather suppresses them. The opposing allusion that alcohol increases arousal in females for sex may just be a perception of experience by a minority.”
The researchers reasoned that these may be a result of the fact that alcohol may cause the body system to slow down, often associated with drunkenness, which may be the reason for the suppression of desire.
“Furthermore, the female body is made up of more body fat and less water, which may explain the impact of suppression or a slowdown of sexual desire as seen in our research indicating that alcohol will stay longer in a fat-rich environment,” they added.
Moreover, in another study, researchers warned that local alcoholic beverages such as pito, burukutu, ogogoro and goskolo, common traditional alcoholic drinks, could have a toxic effect on the ovaries and womb, a deleterious effect on fertility.
In a new study, researchers evaluated the effect of regular consumption of locally brewed alcoholic beverages on animals and said that prolonged intake may adversely affect sexual function and fertility in adult females. It affects the normal functions of the womb and ovaries.
The researchers in the 2021 edition of the journal GSC Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences said, “Pito, burukutu, ogogoro, and goskolo have a reprotoxic effect on the ovaries and womb, thus having a deleterious effect on the fertility of female albino rats. Women with fertility problems are advised to abstain from traditional alcoholic beverages.”
Dr Akintunde Ayinde, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, Adeoyo Maternity Teaching Hospital, Ibadan, stated that alcohol intake can affect the fertility of a man or woman indirectly, causing low sperm quality in men and delayed ovulation in women.
According to him, traditional alcoholic drinks, because of their alcoholic content, can affect all systems of the body and the functions of the body system are also interwoven.
“Each system of the body affects the other. Aside from this invariably affecting ovulation, it increases the chances of other diseases that indirectly affect fertility. And again, the use of alcohol by women can affect generations yet unborn.
“Intake of alcohol in pregnancy increases the risk of abortion, having a low birth weight, preterm birth, and foetal alcohol syndrome in the baby, a situation where the baby is born behaving like a drunk, sleeping, and yawning.
“Even traditional alcoholic beverages can have a detrimental effect on the cerebral cortex, the outermost layer that surrounds the brain. The cerebral cortex is directly responsible for brain functions such as perception, memory, thoughts, mental ability, and intellect.
“Babies affected by foetal alcohol syndrome are not only born with a brain that is smaller in size, but the alcohol reduces the number of brain cells as well as alters their distribution. This results in a mental deficiency of varying degrees, from milder behavioural problems to an obvious mental handicap,” he said.
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