Major Health Benefits of Polyamory

There are many benefits to living the poly lifestyle that extend beyond having multiple partners.

Polyamory can be good for your health too. Here’s how.

Wider Social Support Networks

Isolation and loneliness are major health risks for humans. We are social animals, and people are increasingly alienated through technology, automation, and the dissolution of various cultural forces like the family unit, religion, or small communities.

Increasingly diverse communities have great benefits, but so many members of those communities have left family and friends thousands of miles away. Immigrants can find themselves isolated and lonely.

Psychologists know from studying everything from preschool to seniors’ homes that one of the main causes of health breakdown is isolation.

Polyamory connects people. It’s not just about multiple lovers—you have love, friendship, and intimacy, and people who matter in your life. This keeps us happy and healthy, and gives us support when our health fails.

Healthy Management of STIs

The jury is out on whether polyamorous folks have more STIs than sexually active folks who don’t identify as polyamorous. It’s difficult to measure poly versus monogamy because monogamy is more often than not, a word and not a reality!

Disease rates are best measured between abstinent and active, and neither of those reflect whether a person is poly or not.

While people who have more sex, more often, with more partners obviously have more chances to be exposed to STD infections, not all poly people are currently sexually active, and not all have unlimited partners. Many are in closed situations with several lovers, or other kinds of commitments. Furthermore, many poly people ALWAYS use condoms, even with their wife or husband, because of the nature of their sexuality.

Many monogamous people are unaware that their partner is sleeping with other people, and don’t even know they have an STD.

Polyamory promotes sexual integrity, communication and honesty, and regular medical checkups and interventions. If this is not your model for sexual health care, make it yours and enjoy good sexual health.

Lasting Relationships

Poly people are more likely to enjoy the benefits of lasting relationships. Some people may find this ironic because they assume polyamory is for people who can’t commit, but that’s a myth. When you don’t have to break up in order to have other experiences, you can be in long-term and diverse relationships.

Those benefits include increased communication skills, acceptance of others as they are, self esteem, not being rejected, increased honesty, overcoming obstacles, increased intimacy, expansive views and experiences on sex and sexual pleasure, learning conflict resolution, juggling contradictions, existing with opposing views, trust, and more.

This might not make sense to someone  who isn’t polyamorous—but to those who are, we understand. Instead of breaking up when something doesn’t work or a need isn’t met, we can stay together. We don’t rely on one person to unrealistically fulfill all parts or ourselves, so we don’t have to throw that person away for being incomplete. We remain in relationships with them.