With constant pressure bearing down upon them from family and work, close to 30 percent of middle-aged couples are no longer having sex, a new survey revealed.

The survey, the first to ever track intimate behavior among middle-aged Chinese couples, was jointly commissioned by American pharmaceutical manufacturer Eli Lilly Company and Beijing-based China Population Communication Center.

Polling 32,906 people across 10 major cities including Beijing and Guangzhou, results showed that mainland middle-aged couples had trouble communicating with each other, and this apathy spilled over into their sex lives.

While 46 percent of respondents enjoyed a satisfactory sex life and agreed that this promoted intimacy within a marriage, most of those polled saw a decline in their sex life after the wedding.

Around 45 percent of couples said that the husband has sexual dysfunction. Of those, 76 percent said they feel frustrated and complain about it.

Specifically, 30 percent of middle-aged couples and 25 percent of those younger than 30 no longer had sex due to stress-related issues. A will to resolve this seemed present since most of these also spoke of their frustration at the lack of daily intimacy.

Children also played their part as passion-killers with 41 percent of middle-aged couples admitting to only kissing and cuddling at home when their children are not in.

An alarming 25 percent did not seem to address their issue, saying they only wanted to mind their own business, attributing this reason to the lack of communication. The survey did reveal a trend indicating that the older a couple gets, the more their intimacy or communication will plummet.

Another notable finding was that stress due to familial responsibility was often to blame - 37 percent of respondents revealed that worry over their children, parents or finances gave rise to a lack of communication. 

According to Qiu Xiaolan, an expert with the China Sexology Association, a healthy sex life and strong daily communication are essential to keeping a good marriage alive.

A decline in sex will reversely lead to a decrease in communication and negatively affect the relationship, said Qiu. Qiu added that the heavy burden that comes with a family and a career is becoming too much for many middle-aged men, who become affected with sexual dysfunction, undermining their marriage's stability.

(China Daily April 2, 2007)