hat happens when you have more sex?

It turns out that this question is difficult to answer, simply because few experiments actually ask participants to have sex more regularly and then report back. In one such study, couples actually doubled their lovemaking over three months but decreased in happiness and sexual enjoyment. That same study also found no improvements in marital quality.

Several other studies have echoed this finding, debunking the commonplace notion that frequent sex will make your marriage better. In a January 2016 study, researchers followed over 200 couples—mostly white, mid-20s partners in Ohio and Tennessee—during the first five years of their marriage. About every six months, the couples answered survey questions about their marital satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, and number of times they had sex in the past half-year, so researchers could observe changes over time.

According to their analysis, couples who had more sex tended to be more satisfied with the sex a half-year later. (Practice makes perfect?) But they didn’t become more satisfied with their marriages. And another February 2017 study found that more frequent canoodlers only had happier marriages when they were also more satisfied with the sex. When sex isn’t satisfying, unsurprisingly, more of it doesn’t really benefit the relationship as a whole.

“Good sex appears to outshine plentiful sex,” the researchers conclude.