Even more new research in sex!

New sex and relationship research and why it is important to your relationship

We see a good amount of movies as a couple. When you preach date nights, you better walk the talk. We try and balance the movies between seeing the new Marvel movies (and the yummy IronMan) and the more romantic date night movies. We take turns picking and while we both like adventure, we’ve been adding more thought provoking romantic flicks to our cinema viewing. It turns out that we are not alone.

A recent University of Rochester study found that couples who watched and talked about issues raised in movies like “Steel Magnolias” and “Love Story” were less likely to divorce or separate than couples in a control group. You need to discuss and debate the movie, almost as if it was a book club.

Watching relationship movies helps you understand each other’s position on intimate subjects. Surprisingly, the chick-flick movie was as effective at keeping couples together as two visits to your therapist. They won’t put me out of business, but they might work for a couple who only needs a minor “tune up”.

Other interesting new research that may be impacting your intimate life is the proof that too much light in your bedroom negatively affects your sexual desire and fertility. Women used to menstruate during the new moon (when it’s dark at night) and ovulate during a full moon (when it’s light). Now with late night television, phone and computer screens constantly giving off light, our fertility, and desire can get out of whack.

Be aware of your bedroom lighting. Darkness is better for hiding stretchmarks, and it’s also better for revving up your internal engines. And get the television out of there. The blue light the TV transmits makes you less receptive to an under the covers encounter.

And it’s not just light. It also turns out that bedroom temperature can impact both men and women’s ability to achieve orgasm. For men, if it’s too hot their ability to ejaculate diminishes. For women, it’s having cold feet.

Literally. During the study of orgasms at the University of Groningen, only 50% of women could climax when they were chilly. When you made them more comfortable with warm socks and blankets the climax rate increased to 80%.

Another thing that impacts your sexual responsiveness is too much bike riding, especially with low handlebars. We’ve long known that those bike seats were terrible for male fertility, and diminished erections.

But now the study from Texas A&M shows that:

“women who ride a racing-style bike with handlebars lower than the saddle for more than 10 miles weekly incur a loss of feeling in their genitals.”

An important safety tip to keep your sexual responsiveness up is to pay even closer attention to oral hygiene. Yes you are more likely to get kissed. But it can also affect both your orgasms and your partners erections. I know, I was surprised too.

Unflossed gums harbor bacteria that can enter the bloodstream. This clogs blood vessels, which in turn reduces the blood supply to your squishy parts. So people with gum disease are more likely to have diminished orgasms.

And for men, neglected dental care can lead to a threefold increase in erectile dysfunction. It’s an excellent reason to keep the bathroom stocked with dental floss.

Finally, it turns out that all those high-arched Jimmy Choo’s can negatively affect a woman’s orgasm. Certain high heels that create an artificially heightened arch in the foot make orgasms more difficult.

The heels create a contraction in the pelvic floor, which is problematic because the pelvic floor then cannot contract further during orgasm. Who knew that the arch in women’s feet contract during orgasm?

So wear lower heels, get the TV out of the bedroom, take in a chick flick with your sweetie, and remember to floss. It may be what you need to do to have a fabulous sex life this month.