Why you’re watching MORE SEX but having less

Rachel Hawkins and her husband watched Sex, Love & Goop to inject some novelty into their pandemic-weary sex life. “It’s compelling TV, and not just because it’s voyeuristic,” she says. Look beyond presenter Gwyneth Paltrow’s white sofa and the real stars are the couples who strip inhibitions to reignite sexual sparks. Young parents Felicitas and Rama feel more like roommates than lovers. Shandra gets so tense that penetration hurts, while Erika thinks she can’t orgasm because her clitoris is too small (it isn’t). And Rachel? “I watched it intently, taking mental notes; my husband looked up when a lesbian couple were in their underwear, then carried on playing Wordle on his phone.”

Results of a 2021 US study confirmed what you’ve probably guessed if that single tube of lube has lasted you for the past seven years – we’re shagging less. When Indiana University sex researchers compared the frequency of intercourse, oral sex and partnered masturbation in the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior data in 2009 with 2018, they saw declines in every