How long do you wait before you have sex with a new partner? Three days? Three weeks? Three years? What about the first date?
This is a deeply personal issue of course and while many people want to wait until they are married, many others see no issue with jumping into bed on the first date.
A magazine survey earlier this year, which spoke to a 1000 people aged between 18 and 35, showed that 38.6 per cent of women and 44.4 per cent of men had had sex on a first date. 34.5 per cent of women – and 57.6 per cent of men – also said they knew couples who started their romance by having sex on the first date.
As happy as people are to admit this, the girls said that they thought there was a stigma attached to romping with a new partner before they knew them properly – with 82.6 per cent saying they think men thought less of a woman who had sex on a first date. Of those surveyed 63.5 per cent said they wanted to have sex on a first date but didn’t go through with it because they didn’t want their date to get the wrong idea.
However, 67 per cent of guys admitted that they “absolutely don’t” think any less of a woman who has sex on a first date.
We spoke to dating coach Jo Hemmings (www.johemmings.co.uk) about what she thinks.
“I think that for every person you say that sex on the first date ruins a chance of having a relationship with that person, there will be someone who had sex on their first date and are still with their partner,” she explains. “Personally, I think hold off because I don’t know anyone who has ever said, ‘I wish I slept with somebody earlier,’ but I know a lot of people who have said, ‘I wish I hadn’t done it so quickly.’ On the basis of that that I think it doesn’t give a relationship any less chance but it can work perfectly well and why shouldn’t it?”
However, Jo says by not having sex you protect yourself from “being miserable if they never call.”
“That’s a really wretched place to be, so if you like someone and haven’t slept with them, then it’s painful but not as painful.”
What do you think about sex on the first date? Tell us @lovestruck
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