Younger people in the throes of new romance do tend to have sex more often, but a fresh review suggests how deeply they’re in love doesn’t predict their sexual activity. That finding matters now as overall sexual frequency in the U.S. and other countries has fallen sharply in recent decades.
The review, published in Current Sexual Health Reports and led by University of Melbourne researcher Adam Bode, analyzed responses from the Romantic Love Survey 2022—more than 1,500 young adults across 33 countries—to explore the link between romantic feelings and sexual behavior.
Love vs. intensity: what the evidence shows
Researchers found that simply being in the early phase of romance correlates with increased sexual frequency. On average, young adults reporting romantic love had sex about 3.5 times per week, compared with roughly once weekly among married couples in population surveys.
But the strength of romantic feelings—the amount of preoccupation, intensity, or reported commitment—did not reliably predict how often couples had sex. In other words, being in love mattered; the degree of that love did not.
Brain imaging work cited in the review adds nuance: sexual activity tends to decline as relationships approach the one-year mark, even when emotional intensity remains high. That suggests time in the relationship, rather than the persistence of strong feelings, plays a role in sexual frequency.
Four patterns of lovers
Using cluster analysis, the team sorted respondents into four groups: mild, moderate, intense, and libidinous. Each showed different emotional and behavioral profiles.
- Mild: lower romantic scores and lower sexual frequency.
- Moderate: average emotional intensity and sexual activity.
- Intense: highest reported romantic feelings and commitment, but not the most frequent sex.
- Libidinous: the most sexually active group—nearly ten encounters per week on average—also scoring highest on openness, reported energy, and desire to travel.
One unexpected finding: the libidinous group had a relatively high share of respondents taking SSRIs, medications commonly associated with reduced libido. The authors suggest the heightened drive of early romantic attraction may in some cases blunt that medication effect, though the review stops short of causal claims.
Context: a wider decline in sexual frequency
The study’s results come against the backdrop of a long-term slide in sexual activity across the United States. In 1990, 55% of Americans reported sex at least once a week; by 2024, that figure fell to about 37%. Married couples have also reported declines, from 59% saying they had weekly sex in the late 1990s–2008 period to 49% by 2024.
Early-stage romance appears to provide a buffer against this broader trend, but the review indicates that the buffering effect depends on relationship stage rather than how intensely partners say they love one another.
Lead author Adam Bode told reporters he was surprised that average sexual frequency among young adults in love wasn’t higher, based on his own experiences. The review authors acknowledge limitations: the dataset relies on self-report, skews young, and cannot establish cause-and-effect.
Why this matters now
These findings matter for researchers, clinicians, and couples because they separate two commonly conflated ideas: the presence of romantic love and its intensity. For those tracking the so-called “sex recession,” the study suggests interventions or counseling that focus on relationship stage and behaviors may be more relevant than measures of emotional intensity alone.
Policymakers and health professionals should also note the potential interaction with antidepressant use and the way early relationship dynamics can temporarily override medication side effects. Further longitudinal and clinical research will be needed to unpack mechanisms and long-term patterns.
In short: being newly in love tends to mean more sex, but how deeply someone says they’ve fallen doesn’t reliably predict sexual frequency—an important distinction as sexual activity patterns continue to shift worldwide.
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