At least the economic crisis hasn't affected one leading indicator: Our sex lives. That's one finding from a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults ages 18 to 75 conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center in January.
Seventy-nine percent of the sexually active respondents said that the financial downturn hadn't had the same effect on how often they had sex. And while they said they planned to spend less this year on Valentine's Day, nearly half thought President Obama should take time out during the holiday to show the first lady a little love.
But if the economy hasn't hurt our sex lives overall, our health could be putting a crimp in it. For example, 81 percent of the respondents said they avoided or delayed sex with their partner in the past year. The two most common reasons given were "too tired" (53 percent) and "too sick" (49 percent). For advice on how to deal with insomnia and the other health problems that can sap your mojo, see 6 top reasons for not having sex as well as our table, Drugs and diseases that can hurt your sex life.
Perhaps even harder to overcome is the apparent disconnect between men and women when it comes to sex. For example, nearly 60 percent of the men in our survey said they thought about sex at least once a day, compared with only 19 percent of the women. Men are also far more likely than women to say that sex is highly important to them (64 percent vs. 47 percent). Interestingly, though, an equal percentage of men and women—about two-thirds—said they were highly satisfied with their sex lives.
Those findings jibe with the results of recent medical research that suggests that while roughly the same percentage of men and women report "sexual dysfunction," far fewer women are bothered or distressed by the problem. Yet the pharmaceutical industry seems to see any decline in sexual interest or performance as a medical problem that requires treatment, preferably with drugs. For example, some doctors are prescribing Viagra for women and supplemental testosterone for both men and women. For advice on when medical therapies are called for and when they're not, see Healthy sex: His and hers.
