How often should you have sex to stay healthy?

by Stepy — May 9, 2016

How often should you have sex to stay healthy?

Don’t overlook the benefits of sex. Not only is it fun, pleasurable and extremely intimate, but it is great for your health too. There is a lot of pressure from the media nowadays on couples to have sex very often. While we won’t argue against having sex often, it is not completely necessary from a health standpoint. So how often should you have sex to stay healthy?

Researchers from the Dalhousie University in Canada ran a series of experiments to find out.

The first study they conducted showed that the health benefits of having sex only applied to those in relationships. The next studies only involved people in relationships, and they showed that the magic numbers was once per week.

Although having sex more often than once per week, like 4 to 5 times per week wasn’t bad, it didn’t make couples any happier than having sex once per week.

The researchers found that sex boosts satisfaction in relationships, leading to happier couples.

“For people in relationships, their romantic relationship quality is one of the biggest predictors of their overall happiness … Having sex more than once a week might not be enhancing that (relationship connection), although it is not bad,” postdoctoral researcher and lead author Amy Muise told CNN.

The study abstract outlined the study details and results:

Across three studies (N = 30,645), we demonstrate that the association between sexual frequency and well-being is best described by a curvilinear (as opposed to a linear) association where sex is no longer associated with well-being at a frequency of more than once a week. In Study 1, the association between sexual frequency and well-being is only significant for people in relationships. In Studies 2 and 3, which included only people in relationships, sexual frequency had a curvilinear association with relationship satisfaction, and relationship satisfaction mediated the association between sexual frequency and well-being. For people in relationships, sexual frequency is no longer significantly associated with well-being at a frequency greater than once a week.

So how often should you have sex to stay healthy? The researchers say once per week, but doing it more definitely doesn’t hurt.

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REFERENCES:
1. “Healthy Sex Life Benefits.” Mercola.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2016.
2. “Sexual Frequency Predicts Greater Well-Being, But More Is Not Always Better.” Social Psychological and Personality Science. Sage Journals, n.d. Web. 09 May 2016.
3. “How Much Sex Should You Be Having?” CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 09 May 2016.