The key to a sustainable relationship is communication.

With this in mind, if there is anything bothering you, professionals encourage that you attempt to have a conversation about it.

So, how’s your sex life? Anything you want to talk about?

If you’re feeling sexually unsatisfied, and you are thinking of talking to your “babe” about the possibilities of an open relationship, perhaps you should read this first.

From Quartz, how a recent survey shows that people in the most sexually liberated partnerships aren’t having the best time:

Monogamous couples reported that they were the most sexually satisfied of all the groups in a large, representative survey conducted in March 2017.

Among the 1 885 people who said they were in monogamous relationships, 82% reported that they were broadly satisfied with their sex life. That compared to 80% of people in a marriage, civil union or other legal partnership, while 71% of people in open or polyamorous relationships said they were fulfilled.

The survey was conducted by a Berlin-based research company, Dalia, and included over 11 000 people from the 28 countries in the European Union aged 14-65. Yes, yes, as you can see the UK was included, they haven’t quite left just yet.

[T]hough not every country in the EU provided enough respondents to produce a statistically significant finding, some that did showed marked differences.

Spain proved to be the most sexually satisfied country with 41% of people saying they were “very satisfied” with their sex lives, while in Germany that number was 38%. In Poland only 23% said they were “very satisfied,” compared to 28% in Italy and 29% in both the UK and France.

Here are more findings:

The findings echo US research that showed that people with young kids had the most sex of all Americans. People who live together (as couples with children often do) have readier access to sex than those in relationships who don’t live together. The EU survey only found 275 people, or 2.5% of the total, who said they were in open relationships.

Age and gender also affect sex-life satisfaction. Men overall reported a slight increase in satisfaction as age increased, while women’s satisfaction remained stable. For both genders, the highest peak was between the ages of 25 and 30.

So what’s the deal with open relationships?

While a deep trust is needed to let one’s partner have other romantic endeavours, and “advocates” talk about the intellectual stimulation and support gained from multiple romantic connections, the survey suggest that “multiple partners may well not trump one really great one in the bedroom department”.

But hey, it’s just a survey conducted on a few thousand Europeans who sure don’t represent the rest of the world.

So go forth and have your open relationship.

After all, it’s up to you, babe.

[source:quartz]