To Spice Things up or Not to Spice Things up: Investigating Perceptions of Sexual Novelty Use in Romantic Relationships

Abstract

There is a gap within the literature regarding long-term, heterosexual romantic relationships and the methods by which they attempt to maintain their sexual satisfaction. We investigated how sexual novelty (sex toys, novel sexual positions, etc) was described in five couples’ (primarily White, mixed-sex, co-habiting) sexual discussions and the relation to sexual satisfaction changes over one year. We identified two themes; couples explored adding sexual novelty either to enhance a satisfactory sexual relationship or as a means to address a perceived problem. Enhancement-focused couples maintained their sexual satisfaction over one year, but problem-focused women showed an increase in satisfaction. Results suggest that adding novelty may be a viable strategy to maintain or increase sexual satisfaction.