Given the current obsession with optimising every aspect of our health, it was only a matter of time until the conversation seriously turned to sex. The World Health Organisation emphasises how sexual health is intertwined with “physical, emotional, mental and social wellbeing”, and longevity experts are placing sexual wellness (anything from emotions and pleasure, to hormones and bodily mechanics) at the forefront of the quest for peak performance. Destination resorts SHA Wellness Clinic and Six Senses hotels have launched specialist sexual wellbeing retreats. And networking events such as Summit and Harvest are hosting sexual wellbeing sessions, mindful perhaps that the sexual wellness industry is estimated to reach a value of $92bn by 2032. It all sounds more fun than an ice bath.
“Historically, sex has been reduced to something we do. But it also has a great impact on how we think and feel,” says pyschosexual therapist Kate Moyle, author of The Science of Sex and host of The Sexual Wellness Sessions podcast. She exhorts us to remember that “what’s happening in our sex lives impacts other areas of our life”. Disappointing, then, that nearly 40 per cent of people in the UK are not sexually satisfied.
