To Marriage, Sex and a Long Life

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

Quick—-Who has more sex, single or married men? Wrong! It’s married men. Forget what Hollywood has drummed into your head, this one’s a myth.

Tonight’s the Night

Don’t believe me? Well keep reading. In one of the best studies to look at this to date, the sexual attitudes and habits of 5,865 persons ages 14-94 were examined and here’s what was found:

  • Singles are 3.5 fold more likely than marrieds to not have had sex in the past year (61% vs. 18%)
  • Marrieds are 5 fold more likely than singles to have sex two-to-three times a week (25% vs. 5%)

Amazing but true. But why? Convenience for one. Marrieds don’t spend as much time finding and building relationships that singles need to do to get there. Sexual cues are also well sorted out in married couples relative to singles. There’s much less worry and awkwardness around safety issues such as “Do you have any STDs?” in marriage. And, because of that little ‘ol ring and things that come with it like trust and love, there’s less fear of rejection and greater freedom to experiment sexually.

A Long Married Life

But can marriage also save your life? Could it be true that marriage is “not the end of me?” Who knows? There is reasonably good data showing that coupled men live longer than single men. And now there’s more granular research to suggest that men get more medical care when married. Among men ages 18-64 in the federal National Health Interview Survey:

  • Married men were more likely than unmarried men to see a health care provider in the last year (76% vs. 60%)
  • This is true for both younger (18-44 years) and older (45-64 years) men.

So, when it comes to sex and your health, the old American proverb that “The most dangerous food is wedding cake,” may not be true after all.