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If there's a lack of sex in your marriage, just wait until this specific anniversary.
By Nicole Weaver — Last updated on Jun 04, 2023
There are tons of weird mixed signals from society when it comes to the expectation of sex in a marriage.
What we tend to hear is that married people get it on often, then kids come along to ruin everything. Say goodbye to morning sex, say goodbye to Thursday date nights, and say goodbye to privacy.
But is the sex life of married couples truly linear? And is a sexless marriage truly what we all have to look forward to in our futures?
As a young, single person I wouldn't know, but I have assumed that this is true. With that assumption, my goal has been to always put off the wedding bells and kids. Not only due to sex but because I want to travel and get further into my career before settling down.
Well, thanks to a new study I might be wrong about this assumption … and I should probably settle down quicker! Have you been on a date with a guy in this day and age before?
It's exhausting, and I certainly don't need to be married to know that I can look forward to no sex in my future.
According to a 2015 study published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, the average marital sex life does decline but rebounds after a certain number of years.
A research team looked at the sex lives of 1,656 married adults between the ages of 57 and 85. Some of these couples have made it through 50 years of marriage.
The research found that married couples' sex lives start off strong and then decline. But in marriages that last longer than half a century, their sex lives rebound and it goes back to being strong.
Samuel Stroope, Ph.D., a professor of sociology at Louisiana State University claims that this phenomenon is due to couples building trust and confidence over time.
So how do long-lasting first marriages compare to second marriages? If your first marriage doesn't work out and you end up finding someone who is more compatible then that means you will be having more sex, right? Not necessarily.
People who have stayed with their first spouse have more sex than those who remarry. So perhaps people should focus less on how to "spice things up" in their marriage and focus more on how to keep their marriage lasting.
So it looks like I should get married sooner if I want to have a good chance to make it to that golden anniversary and have a marriage with more sex! Yikes!
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Nicole Weaver is a senior writer for Showbiz Cheat Sheet whose work has been featured in New York Magazine, Teen Vogue, and more.