A hip new hip project carefully studied people having sex, doing it for safety’s sake. The study is:
“Sexual Activity after Total Hip Arthroplasty: A Motion Capture Study,” Caecilia Charbonnier, Sylvain Chagué, Matteo Ponzoni, Massimiliano Bernardoni, Pierre Hoffmeyer, Panayiotis Christofilopoulos, Journal of Arthroplasty, epub September 6, 2013. This chart sums up the study’s medical insights, in a way that may be useful to practitioners:
The authors, at Artanim Foundation, Geneva, Switzerland, Medacta International SA, Lugano, Switzerland, University Hospitals of Geneva, report:
“Relative risk of impingement and joint instability during sexual activities after total hip arthroplasty (THA) has never been objectively investigated. Hip range of motion necessary to perform sexual positions is unknown. A motion capture study with two volunteers was performed. 12 common sexual positions were captured and relevant hip joint kinematics calculated. The recorded data was applied to prosthetic hip 3D models to evaluate impingement and joint instability during motion. To explore the effect of acetabular component positioning, nine acetabular cup positions were tested. Four sexual positions for women requiring intensive flexion (> 95°) caused prosthetic impingements (associated with posterior instability) at 6 cup positions. Bony impingements (associated with anterior instability) occurred during one sexual position for men requiring high degree of external rotation (> 40°) combined with extension and adduction at all cup positions. This study hence indicates that some sexual positions could be potentially at risk after THA, particularly for women.”
The authors also produced this educational video: