My skin has usually been pretty clear, even through my adolescence. But now I’m 25, and recently I’ve been breaking out a lot. I also have been having a lot of sex for a couple of months straight. Is there some weird kind of hormone thing that’s doing this to me? I thought sex was supposed to cure your pimples. –Marty Tyler, New York
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What the hey, Jack, you’re getting parallel on a regular basis and you’re bitching about zits? Some of the cases I hear from are so desperate for love they wouldn’t complain if they turned orange. Be that as it may, you’re not the only one to wonder about the acne/lust connection. A couple related propositions you’ll hear debated in locker rooms include: (1) having sex regularly makes your beard grow faster; and (2) the more “virile” you are, whatever that means, the faster your hair falls out–obviously a notion that appeals to balding relics such as myself.
Even if sex does increase hormone production, nobody’s sure if that means it’ll crater your face or chrome your dome. The best one recent survey of the field could do was: “We conclude that the relations between sex hormones and characters of hair and skin are very complicated and require further investigation.” A committee will soon be formed. In the meantime, enjoy your lively sex life while it lasts. Soon you’ll break up or get married, either way getting ample opportunity to do a baseline comparison.
People with AIDS are at the most significant risk for contracting toxo from eating a hamburger or planting a garden. Petting a kitten is way down the list. –David Kay, Tree House Animal Foundation, Chicago
