The increasingly popular sexual practice is raising concerns among doctors across the country.
A recent survey found that a staggering 58 percent of female college students have experienced choking during intimate moments (medically known as sexual strangulation).
But now the weird “excitement” made popular by Gen Z TV shows like HBO’s Euphoria and the hit Fifty Shades of Grey has been shown to cause serious brain damage, potentially permanently.
A study found that women who had been strangled four times in the past 30 days had changes in their brain structure that affected their working memory capabilities.
The study was conducted by sexual and reproductive health researcher Dr. Debbie Herbinick, one of the scientists leading the investigation into the harms of choking.
Dr. Debbie Herbinick, a sexual and reproductive health researcher, is one of the scientists leading the study into the harms of choking.
Other studies she has led have shown that rough sex, including choking, is not only common among young people, it’s expected.
When blood flow to the brain is restricted, the brain immediately stops functioning normally and can undergo necrosis, or tissue death, in as little as five minutes due to a lack of oxygen and glucose supply.
The risk of sexual activity lies in the harm it can cause by depriving the brain of oxygen.
Even a short period, such as 10 seconds, can cause fainting. Going without oxygen for minutes can cause permanent brain damage.
Neurons, or brain cells, begin to shrink and die. To survive, they turn to emergency fuel stores, which produce lactic acid in the bloodstream and, after about 20 minutes, cause damage to heart, kidney and liver tissue.
The appeal, proponents say, is the sudden release of oxygen that creates an euphoric feeling when your partner lets go.
Dr Havernik said: “It’s a huge concern when teenagers and young adults engage in this kind of behaviour, as they don’t yet have a lot of knowledge or information about these behaviours and may also have very limited experience of sexual practices, experiences and communications.”
“Historically, within the paraphilia and BDSM communities, strangulation or suffocation has been considered taboo for most people, a very rare or niche activity that only a small minority of people are interested in, and requires very careful consent, communication, and education.”
The areas glowing red and orange represent the asphyxiated group, which had thicker brain regions in many areas, including parts of the frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital lobes in both hemispheres, which are involved in a variety of processes, including face recognition, decision-making, self-awareness and motor movements.
The asphyxiated group showed significant changes in fractal dimension (a measure of the complexity of brain structure, showing how intricate and detailed the cortical surface is) in various brain regions, increasing in some areas and decreasing in others, compared to the unasphyxiated group.
The blue areas represent the asphyxiation group, which showed significantly less brain folding (folding) compared to the naive group in several brain regions involved in decision-making, planning, emotion regulation, reward processing, language processing, and speech production.
Research published in the journal Brain Behavior The researchers studied two groups of women – 41 who had been strangled in the past 30 days and 41 who had not – to see how the experience of being strangled affects the structure of the brain.
The asphyxiation group showed significant increases in cortical thickness in several brain regions involved in face recognition, visual processing, and memory. This suggests that the structure of their brains was possibly permanently altered compared to the control group.
These structural changes may be related to differences in cognitive function and sensory processing.
Measures of structural brain complexity were mixed, with the asphyxiation group showing increases in the volume of areas involved in touch, emotion processing, and recognizing other people’s faces and bodies, but decreases in the size of areas involved in working memory, higher executive function, self-awareness, and visual processing.
However, the study authors caution: “Individuals vulnerable to psychiatric disorders such as depression may already have altered cortical morphology that may predispose them to more risky behaviors.”
Choking during sex is a relatively new phenomenon, having evolved from hiding in niche corners of internet porn sites (which thrive) to intimate choking being a staple of pop culture.
Not only Euphoria, but musicians like Jack Harlow and comedians like Ali Wong have also revealed their penchant for the habit.
The first episode of Max’s show, Euphoria, depicts a character named Cassie having sex with a man who chokes her, assuming she is enjoying it, without him asking her beforehand.
Meanwhile, Jack Harlow sings in his song “Lovin On Me,” “I’m vanilla, baby, I’ll strangle you, but I’m not a murderer, baby.”
And comedian Ali Wong said: “I’m a bossy person, so you be the boss, OK? Strangle me so that I can’t talk, because if I could talk I’d tell you what to do.”
2022 study Women who were strangled at least once were reported to have experienced loss of consciousness and to have suffered at least mild acquired brain injury, seizures, motor and speech disorders, and paralysis.
Sam Pybus (32), from the UK, killed his mistress Sophie Moss (33) (pictured) by choking her during sex.
Sam Pybus, 32, was jailed for four years and eight months after pleading guilty to strangling mother-of-two Sophie Moss in her bed, along with his ex-wife Louise Howitt.
Psychological consequences include PTSD, depression, suicidal tendencies, and dissociation. Cognitive and behavioral symptoms are less frequently reported but include memory loss, increased aggression, submissiveness, and lack of willingness to seek help.
“I think parents are just shocked to hear about changes in sexual behavior among teenagers and young adults and college students and so on, because when people who are now in their 40s, 50s and 60s were at these ages, these behaviors were not mainstream,” said Dr. Harbnick. “So it’s really hard for people to believe or even accept that this could be true.”
On February 7, British man Sam Pybus squeezed his girlfriend Sophie Moss’ neck during sex at her home. It was technically consensual, as she had previously asked him to do it. Pybus has said he was drunk when he strangled the mother of two.
The case is notable as the latest in a series of cases in which men accused of murdering women have used the “rough sexual intercourse” defense.
The court heard the strangled person had “asked” his partner to carry out the acts that led to the murder, adding that the murder was the result of sexual activity to which the victim consented and possibly even requested.
Pybus pleaded guilty to manslaughter rather than murder but was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison because he had no intention to kill her or cause her serious harm.
