Sexual activity in exercising patients after myocardial infarction and revascularization

In order to evaluate the effects of exercise training on coital habits after myocardial infarction and revascularization, questionnaires were mailed to 130 patients enrolled in a gymnasium exercise program. Of 87 (67%) responding, 68 had experienced myocardial infarction and 19 had undergone myocardial revascularization. The postinfarction group significantly decreased their frequency of coitus after infarction by 28%; the revascularization group, however, decreased activity by only 10%. The myocardial infarction group waited 9.4 weeks after infarction to resume sexual intercourse, while the revascularization group waited a mean of only 5.7 weeks. These data suggest that physically trained post-myocardial infarction patients decrease frequency of coitus significantly more than physically trained patients with myocardial revascularization. The overall decrease, however, is notably less than that reported in nontrained post-myocardial infarction patients and suggests a "bedroom benefit" of medically supervised exercise in selected patients after infarction or revascularization.