If your sex life is dwindling, you might want to look at how often you do the dishes.
A new study has found that couples who make an equal contribution to domestic chores are more likely to have satisfying sex - and lots of it.
Yay for equality!
Dr Matt Johnson, a family ecology professor in the Department of Human Ecology at the University of Alberta, analysed data from a five-year study of 1,338 couples from Germany found a positive link between couples who fairly distributed chores and their sex life.
He also studied the data to see if the amount of housework the male partner did was a predictor of a couple's sex life, but didn't find any connection.
Dr Johnson then studied men's perception of whether they made a fair contribution to housework, and how that was related to their sex life.
"In any relationship, the amount of housework is going to mean something different based on the couple's context, based on their own expectations for what each partner should be doing, and their comparison levels of what happens with other couples they know," Johnson said.
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He found that when men perceived their contributions to the division of labour as fair, the couple engaged in more frequent sex and both male and female partners were more satisfied with their sex life.
Dr Johnson believes the findings are important for couples seeking to maintain sexual intimacy while balancing the demands of daily life.
"Rather than avoiding chores in the hopes of having more sex, as prior research would imply, men are likely to experience more frequent and satisfying passion for both partners between the sheets when they simply do their fair share," he said.
The study, which was published in the Journal of Family Psychology, contradicts research from 2012 which said that when men perform housework - for example, washing up, cooking and laundry - they had less sex with their partner.
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[H/T Eureka]