Will paid sex breaks boost Sweden's fertility rate?
Posted
In her weekly column, Jo Fox rounds up the news and views that might have flown under your radar.
This week it's all about sex — or rather, a lack of it —and what appears to be a trend in countries encouraging their populations to rise up and put their backs into it.
Wanted: Sex Tsar of Spain
Now here's a job advert you don't see every day.
Spain this week announced it has appointed a Sex Tsar, who will be charged with addressing the country's "catastrophically low" birth rate.
Young Spanish couples are apparently too tired to give a .... with long days at work and too many late nights being blamed for what experts say is one of the lowest birth rates in the developed world.
Not only is the birth rate for Spanish women aged 18 to 49 years just 1.3 children — well below the European Union level of 1.58 — but for the first time last year there were fewer births than deaths.
In fact, Spain's birth rate has fallen by 18 per cent since 2008, while the number of childless couples has tripled from 1.5 to 4.4 million between 1977 and 2015.
Spain's new sex position has been filled by Galician senator and demographics expert Edelmira Barreira who, with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, will draft a document for "a national strategy of demographic imbalances".
So, it's not necessarily a lights-down-sexy answer to get this problem licked as yet.
Paid time off... for sexy times
One solution the Spanish may consider has recently been proposed in Sweden — paid sex breaks.
Forget pussyfooting around with a strategic document, the Swedish town of Overtornea last week announced a proposal to give the municipality's 550 employees paid time off to get busy.
As with Spain and other developed countries, Sweden's fertility rate has been gradually falling for the past several decades, with Overtornea's population dropping from 5,229 in 2005 to 4,711 10 years later.
However, it seems this Swedish town is really pinpointing sex and overall wellbeing as their prime reason for allowing time off for more than tea and crumpet. Not just baby-making.
"There are studies that show sex is healthy," said Per-Erik Muskos, a councilman at Overtornea, adding that couples in Sweden weren't spending enough time together. "It's about having better relationships."
As titillating as a plan for paid sex breaks sounds, it is actually just adding sex to the already existing right for Swedes to have work breaks to exercise.
Yep, they already get one paid hour off each week to work out.
As Mr Muskos said, sex is a form of exercise "and has documented positive effects on well-being".
Of course, this assumes one has someone to have sex with — it is not clear whether the fine print allows cruising or swiping for partners as part of this paid break.
So — and most importantly — will it work?
In terms of promoting general wellbeing and relationships, the Australian Government certainly thinks so.
The government-owned website Health Direct lists the benefits of sex as being good for the heart, lowering blood pressure and strengthening the immune system.
And, in terms of creating a baby boom, it appears greater education and awareness does indeed do the job.
Or at least it seems to in Denmark which — not content with populating the world by stealth through its status as the leading sperm donors —attempted to bolster its population through a campaign called "Do it for Denmark".
The series of ads encouraged Danes to procreate, using lines such as: "Screw for Denmark" and "Do it for Mom" and asking if people had "counted their eggs today".
The campaign was reportedly successful, with 1,200 more babies estimated to be born by late 2016 — the first increase in births since 2010.
Of course, the Spaniards could just borrow from the rather more transactional Australian approach of "cash for kids".
Many may remember — or cannot forget — former treasurer Peter Costello's directive for Aussies to have ''one for mum, one for dad and one for the country'' when he introduced the since-axed baby bonus in 2002.
A Melbourne Institute study found this policy worked, with the fertility rate increasing by 3.2 per cent between 2004 and 2006.
Men: Is your exercise routine sabotaging your sex drive?
Or Spain could simply promote the dad bod.
A new study published last month in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found that men who worked out intensely were more likely to report having a lower sex drive than men whose exercise routines were less strenuous.
Anthony Hackney, a professor of exercise physiology and nutrition at the University of North Carolina who led the study, said there was a clear "tipping point" at which exercise started to ruin one's libido.
If men were concerned about whether their training was sabotaging their sex life, he added, they could simply trial exercising less, and pay attention to whether it affected their libido.
Which seems like solid advice for couples hoping to conceive.
"Fertility specialists will often ask a woman about whether and how much she exercises," Dr Hackney told The New York Times. "Based on our data, we think they should also be asking the man."
So, many potential angles for the Spanish to report back on. And it appears we're all gagging for it.
Jo Fox is a former ALP political advisor, including on the status of women. She is currently on maternity leave, learning how to fumble a newborn and looking at the gendered world with tired eyes.
Topics: babies---newborns, family-and-children, sexuality, women, sexual-health, exercise-and-fitness
