Couples Struggle to Stay Sexually Satisfied After 1 Year Together

When a relationship begins, it’s often full-steam ahead socially, emotionally and sexually. There is that something we all feel when entering into a new affair of the heart that cranks up the endorphins; gets the chest pounding and the mind racing to positive conclusions. However, as anyone who has been in a long-term relationship can attest to, burning desires don’t always maintain the same powerful spark over time.

According to a new study from researchers at the Ludgwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, couples begin to lose sexual satisfaction with one another after just a year together.

Participants of the study (3,000 people aged 25-41, who are in relationships) made it known that the greatest sexual fulfillment they felt in a relationship occurred within the first 12 months of it. Beyond that, there was a noticeable decline.

What’s especially interesting here, is that participants of this study revealed that such relationship matters like marriage, cohabitation and children do not have a major impact on how they perceive the quality of their sex lives. A lot of the time, such things are easy to blame for the decline of a couple’s intimacy.

Of course, those in long-term relationships don’t have to allow their love lives to get stale after just 365 days. Often, changing up the routine, dedicating more time to your partner and bringing back the dating-era spontaneity and romance can go a long way into making sure that sexual satisfaction sticks around longer than the calendar on your wall.

-Adam Grant