Women in Britain are experiencing widespread disinterest in sex, with a nearly half of sexually active women reporting at least one problem in the past year, according to a University of Cambridge professor.
Some 40 percent of men, too, have experienced problems. But unlike women, they don’t attribute their bedroom issues to a lack of interest.
While the population is perpetually confronted with lithe and athletic actors performing steamy and passionate sex scenes, the reality of Britain’s bedrooms presents a far bleaker picture.
Analysis of the British National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL), by University of Cambridge statistician Professor David Spiegelhalter for the MailOnline, showed that a large proportion of sexually active adults have experienced problems in the bedroom during the past year.
For women, the problems identified by the professor included a lack of interest or enjoyment in sex, physical pain as a result of intercourse and experiencing no sexual arousal.
Of the women who said they experienced problems, a third said they were lacking in any form of interest in sex, and one in 12 said they had issues climaxing.
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Men also experienced problems, with 15 percent having suffered from premature ejaculation at some point, and a further one in eight having trouble getting an erection.
Spiegelhalter also found that although it is common to experience a deflated sex-life as we get older, a great proportion of 16-24 year-olds also reported having issues in the bedroom: some 45 percent of women and 35 percent of men.
Men, however, were found to be statistically far more likely to show an interest in sex, with only half the number of men reporting a lack of interest or arousal than women.
This discovery could explain one of the most common issues for couples: one partner being more interested than the other, which was reported by one in four couples.
Further problems included seven percent of women and 10 percent of men claiming their partners did not share their sexual preferences.
While the sex may be sub-par, few Brits admitted to lacking emotional attraction to their partners – just two percent of women and one percent of men.
The analysis also found 11 percent of men said they had paid for sex at some point in their lives, with the total number of men having visited a prostitute in the past five years up to four percent.
The demographic most likely to be paying for sex were single Londoners aged between 25 and 34, although two thirds of respondents said they had done so while traveling abroad.
For women the figure was much lower, at around one in 1,000.