Sex in Hard Times

The Czech daily Mladá Fronta Dnes quotes a study that found that bad economic times leads to bad sex and diminished libido. However, the researchers also don't believe that better times will necessarily result in better sex:

"The scientists surveyed also claim, however, that during economic booms people don't think about sex because they are too busy thinking about business. It rather makes you think of farmers who fear too much rain as much as they fear drought. People used to say sex was a pleasure for the poor, sex was great and was free."

But there is some evidence that people are having more sex during this economic crisis.  Of course, they may just be having more "bad sex".  In any case, Sigrid Neudecker, who edits the Sex Blog at Die Zeit, sees plenty of evidence that people are making good use of the all the spare time they have today while unemployed:

Falls Sie es noch nicht bemerkt haben: Sie haben im Moment ein super Sexleben. Krise und so, Sie wissen ja. Ein Hinweis darauf stammt aus den USA. Dort stieg im ersten Quartal 2009 der Verkauf von Gleitmitteln um 32 Prozent auf 41,2 Millionen US-Dollar an. Hauptverantwortlich dafür sollen neue Produkte von K-Y sein, die eigene Gleitmittel für Sie und Ihn auf den Markt gebracht haben. (In case you haven't noticed: you are having a great sex life just now.  Thanks to the economic crisis.  One indication from this comes from the US.  For the first quarter of 2008 sales of lubricant rose 32% to $41.2 million.)

Die Welt sees a silver lining (for enhanced lust) in this terrible economy.  The conservative daily cites the American anthropologist Helen Fisher, who studies the biochemistry of love, that anxiety over one's jobs results in an increased release of the hormone dopamine, which acts as an aphrodisiac.  

Nach jüngsten Erhebungen verzeichnen Online-Dating-Plattformen tatsächlich mehr Zugriffe. Also mehr Lust, mehr Sex... (According to the most recent surveys the online dating sites are reporting more hits.  So, more lust, more sex...)

But Dr. Fisher also points to the downside - sexually speaking - of bad economic times.  You can watch one of her lectures on TED (unable to embed).  Towards the end of the video, Dr. Fisher warns of the effect of antidepressents that enhance seratonin but supress dopamine.  Millions of Americans (over 200 million prescriptions just last year) are taking these drugs; many because they are depressed by the bad economy.