Imagine this; One-third of the entire adult population has been struck by a mysterious malady. Public health alerts blare at us from our television and computer screens and the Centers for Disease Control are mobilizing all efforts to find its cause and working feverishly toward its containment. It would be classified as a public health menace of epidemic proportion.
Well, the numbers are real. We do have a problem of this proportion on our hands. Around 43 percent of women and 31 percent of men are sexually dysfunctional. These are the grim findings researchers uncovered about our sex lives. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported these staggering statistics in an exhaustive survey, waking us up to the fact that that sex in America is far from what it has been cracked up to be.
The researchers cited the many physical causes for sexual dysfunction, such as painful intercourse and premature ejaculation, but by and large, the leading culprit seems to be a lack of libido -- a general disinterest in sex. In a country seemingly obsessed with sex it is hard to accept these findings. A revealing peek through the keyholes of America's bedrooms finds our very obsession may itself be a reaction to the absence of satisfying sex in our own lives.
Are sexual problems a sad sign of the times? With many young couples working long hours outside the home, babies to nurture, and leisure time at a minimum, is it unrealistic to expect today's couples to stay psyched for sex?
