Topics: Life, Sex and Relationships, Health, Science
Everyone's different. From their coffee order and how they take their cuppa to their morning routine and even their sexual appetites - we all do things pretty differently when to comes to our day-to-day lives.
But, it seems there is one question I'm sure many people have been secretly wondering - just how many times you should be aiming to get it on each week in order to maintain a healthy and happy relationship.
Now, it should be noted that we are all unique individuals with different lifestyles, preferences and all the rest and we should treat our sex life with the same understanding.
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However, some medical professionals reckon there's an optimum number as to how much you and your partner should be having sex each week.
A study published back in 2015 in the Society for Personality and Social Psychology looked at the frequency that people had sex, and how it linked to greater happiness.
Now, the study was based on surveys from over 25,000 Americans collected over more than 20 years, and it is the first to disprove the long-believed notion that more sex equals more happiness.
With that said, however, the study is specific to people in romantic relationships, with there being no link between sexual frequency and wellbeing for single people according to lead researcher, Amy Muise.
The study in question analysed sexual frequency and happiness between 11,285 men and 14,225 women, who took the General Social Survey from 1989 to 2012.
Conducted by the University of Chicago, the biennial survey showed that frequent sex between couples correlated with happiness, but it turns out that the cut off point is at one time a week.
Interesting.
The social psychologist and post-doctoral, who is based at the University of Toronto-Mississauga, stated: "Although more frequent sex is associated with greater happiness, this link was no longer significant at a frequency of more than once a week."
She continued: "Our findings suggest that it's important to maintain an intimate connection with your partner, but you don't need to have sex everyday as long as you're maintaining that connection."
According to the fascinating study, couples engaging in sex more than once a week didn't show any more happiness than those being intimate just the one time, and this study, along with previous ones, showed that established couples tend to have sex once a week on average.
It also found that gender, age or length of relationship had nothing to do with results, with consistent results across all variations of these factors, according to Muise.
She also stated that such results don't necessarily mean that you should feel pressured to meet the average though, explaining: "It's important to maintain an intimate connection with your partner without putting too much pressure on engaging in sex as frequently as possible."
However, contrary to these studies, some doctors strongly follow Muise's belief of it being dependant on the couple, and nothing to do with science.
Kameelah Phillips MD, an OBGYN based in New York, shared: "Every couple is unique, and as long as they have a mutually agreed upon routine and fulfilment, then there is no external recommendation that applies."
Natasha Bhuyan, MD, a family physician from Arizona, agrees with this, saying that personal satisfaction can change based on mood, health, and where you're at in your life.
Further highlighting that it has nothing to do with gender, the doctor said that there is a 'truly wide variation among people and their preferences'.
Couples may find that different acts of intimacy such as hugging, cuddling and kissing are just as satisfying, and though testosterone is linked to sexual libido, it varies from person to person.
Same-sex relationships may also operate differently, with these studies focused primarily on heterosexual relationships.
