Women who have sex at least once a week are "happier" in their relationships, according to a new study.
Scientists found that 85 percent of women who had sex once a week described themselves as "sexually satisfied," according to a study of nearly 500 heterosexual women.
In contrast, only 66 percent of married or partnered women who had sex once a month reported the same level of relationship happiness.
And the figure dropped to just 17 percent among those women who had sex less often than that.
The author of the new study, Alexandra Janssen, a researcher at the University of Manchester, said these findings show the importance of regular intimate relationships.
She told MailOnline: "While the study shows a link between frequency of sex and satisfaction in sexual relationships, it is only a correlation. We don't know whether women are happier because they have more sex, whether they have more sex because they are happier, or whether they are happier and have more sex because of other factors - perhaps because they don't have children. Also, the fact that women who have less sex are less satisfied in their relationships is not particularly surprising."
The data also showed that satisfaction was higher for women who reported more orgasms and rated sex as an important part of their lives.
Ms. Janssen added: “What I found interesting about this study was that, although women who orgasmed more often were generally happier with their sex lives, women who orgasmed 100 percent of the time were not necessarily the most satisfied. This goes against the belief that women are only most satisfied when they orgasm in every sexual act. It shows that women don’t need to orgasm every time to be satisfied in a relationship. “I hope this takes the pressure off women who may have difficulty reaching orgasm every time.”
Ms. Janssen's study also found that women who rated sex as "very important" had happier love lives than those who did not see it as a priority.
Other findings from the study, published in the International Journal of Sexual Health, showed that women aged 18 to 24 were more likely to report sexual satisfaction.
In contrast, women over 45 were less likely to feel happy with their intimate relationship.
The study was based on a survey of 483 women from New Zealand who had been in a stable relationship over the past year.
The authors noted that the study had several limitations.
One of them was that, being a survey, there was no way to verify whether the women's reports were accurate.
Another was that the group of heterosexual women surveyed was not very diverse, which may limit the applicability of the findings to other groups.
According to YouGov figures, six out of ten Britons have sex less than once a week.
One in ten declares having sex every week, and 15 percent say they are sexually active even more often.
Regular sex isn't just good for the mood: numerous studies have shown that it has general health benefits and may even help us live longer. /Express newspaper/
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