Women who have sex less than once a week are more likely to die prematurely than those who have sex more regularly, according to new research. While no similar effects were found for men, the researchers noted that increasing the frequency of sex reduced the chance of premature death in both depressed men and women.
“Sexual activity is important for overall cardiovascular health because it reduces heart rate variability and increases blood flow,” the authors write. “Our findings suggest that sexual activity, broadly defined, may improve functional decline that occurs with aging and disease progression,” they add.
To reach these conclusions, the researchers analyzed data from 14,542 people in the United States recorded as part of the National Health Survey conducted between 2005 and 2010. A total of 2,267 people provided details of their sex lives, of which 94.4% said they had sex at least once a month, and 38.4% said they had sex once a week or more.
Because previous studies have shown that the average American adult has sex 54 times a year, or about once a week, the researchers decided to categorize people as having more or less frequent sex than once a week (52 times a year).
Overall, women with infrequent sex were 1.7 times more likely to die from any cause by the end of 2015 than sexually active women.
Importantly, the researchers note that this effect follows a dose-dependent pattern — the less sexual activity a woman has, the higher her risk of death. And while they found no similar response in men, the researchers were surprised to find that sexual activity appeared to have a “modifying relationship” with the adverse health effects of depression in both sexes.
Indeed, after controlling for confounding factors such as obesity, older age, and lower socioeconomic status, the authors found that people who both suffered from depression and had infrequent sex were nearly three times more likely to die during the follow-up period.
Of course, it’s important to note that such correlations cannot infer causation, but previous research has shown that people tend to feel better the day after having sex and have a greater sense of purpose in life, which may lead to improved depression and overall health. These results are consistent with those of another small study of Israeli adults, which found an association between survival after a heart attack and having more sex.
Overall, the study authors stopped short of concluding that having sex once a week could potentially save your life, but based on the evidence, it certainly can’t be harmful.
The study was published in the Journal of Psychosexual Health.
