Times 1 May article - happy couples have sex 3-4 times a week

[Moanranger]

Are all journalists innumerate? Article claims " most" couples have sex this often, then report a rate of 37%. That is not most. More had sex less often. The 3-4 times a week crowd was the biggest group, but that was largely a result of the way the sampling groups were broken down.
Also, the article implied having more sex made you happier, but I suspect it is more likely that happy couples were inclined to have sex more often. The dim-wittedness of journals never cease to amaze me, but then Rupert Murdoch loves these lascivious topics, also anything to make you feel inadequate, such as the constant Richest..... Lists.

I don't know anybody who has sex 3-4 times a week! Maybe some couples do, but no way do 37% of couples do this. Are they including people who've been married 50 years? Those with very young children? Or did they just survey newlyweds who didn't live together before marriage?!

I think that probably correlates to most people's sex drives though surely except when you have babies and small children?

Mind you there is the Woody Allen sketch -

[Alvy and Annie are seeing their therapists at the same time on a split screen]

Alvy Singer's Therapist: How often do you sleep together?

Annie Hall's Therapist: Do you have sex often?

Alvy Singer: [lamenting] Hardly ever. Maybe three times a week.

Annie Hall: [annoyed] Constantly. I'd say three times a week.

We're fucked then (obv not literally...)

We have it 3/4 times a week DCs 6 & 8 we 42 - 48 and even the woody Allen sketch n all.

lol at the Woody Allen sketch.
MsVestibule am intrigued that you say most people you know don't...
Do you discuss it with them? Must admit, has never occurred to me to ask friends, neighbours, colleagues how often they have sex

Also, it does say, happy couples. As Moanranger points out - who knows which way the correlation goes. Certainly in this house there is more sex when we are happy. (Tho' we have also found that when we are unhappy having sex does improve things to the point we then get happier if that makes sense...)

My husband and I used to have sex three or four times a week and now divorced so it is a load of rubbish.

Communication verbally is far more important.

I am in a very happy marriage. Some weeks we exceed the quotas given in this article. Some weeks we don't have sex at all. It isn't the b all and end all! It's not even something I worry about. We have a healthy sex life and neither one of us feels that we 'have' to do it to make the relationship work.

Surely the happiest couples (for this sort of thing) are the ones where their sex drives are well matched and they have the amount of sex that they both want?

It doesn't actually matter how often everyone else is doing it...!

MrsSalvoMontalbano OK, I haven't actually conducted a survey, but yes, my friends and I chat about this sort of thing! We don't say "I have sex with my DH x times a week" but it's kind of alluded to. Next time we meet up I'll say "I read about this article on MN and it said that happy couples have sex 3-4 times a week..." and listen to the snorts of derision.

Although of course it's possible that none of us are happily married .

Is it that unusual?