Weight worries killing women's love lives - survey

London: More than half of women feel so overweight that they avoid having relationship with their partners, a survey shows.

Some 52 per cent said their lack of confidence in the shape of their bodies made them reluctant to be intimate.

Even more blamed tiredness for killing off the prospect of a night of passion.

Experts said the poll showed many women were suffering from a combination of unrealistic expectations about their appearance and increasingly busy lives, and warned relationships were inevitably suffering as a result.

Sex In The Nation, a survey of 4,000 people, found that 29 per cent of women cited feeling that they looked fat as a reason for avoiding relationship, with a further 23 per cent blaming embarrassment about their ‘wobbly bits'.

The figures for male respondents were eight per cent and 11 per cent respectively.

The biggest passion-killer of all was tiredness, a reason 72 per cent of women said they had given their partners, followed by feeling unattractive (34 per cent), illness (33 per cent) and stress (32 per cent).

Embarrassment

Psychosexual specialist Dr Catherine Hood, who lectures at Oxford University, said many women "feel under pressure to live up to a vision of perfection which just isn't realistic".

Of the women polled, 13 per cent said they only had relationship with the lights off out of embarrassment at being seen in fat bodies, and one in ten would like to be more adventurous in the bedroom but felt ashamed about parts of their body.

A fifth of married people said they had a low relationship drive, followed by those living with a partner (18 per cent), divorcees and single people (17 per cent) and widowers (14 per cent).

Boredom

Six per cent of respondents that are married or living with a partner were bored with their love lives, but 19 per cent stated their libido would increase if they had more time to spend with their loved ones.

Worryingly, six per cent of women said they only have relationship with their partner out of duty.

Dr Hood added: "Libido is a mixture of physical and psychological factors — it's different for every woman, but there are many ways to rediscover it. Couples need to make time to rebuild that intimacy.

"For women who are embarrassed about their wobbly bits, it can be as simple as choosing to wear a sexy camisole top rather than being naked."

The survey was commissioned by Fembido, a ‘passion pill' made from a blend of herbal ingredients which claims to boost the female libido.