YNOT EUROPE – A new survey of European couples may lend credence to what some consider common knowledge: Sexual intimacy decreases after marriage.

Extramarital dating service LovingLinks.co.uk polled 3,000 married people to determine how their attitudes about sex had changed post-marriage. Among the results: 33 percent admitted they “no longer fancy” their mates, and nearly half (43 percent) said their partners had “let themselves go.” The latter may explain why 59 percent of respondents said they no longer make an effort to please their partners.

A whopping 60 percent said marriage took all the excitement out of sex, and 50 percent categorized their spouses as friends, not lovers.

“Unfortunately, while you can be deeply in love with someone and want to spend the rest of your life with them, it is also possible to want more from the relationship,” a spokesman for the dating service told the Daily Mail. “A partner might be supportive, funny, intelligent and kind, but if they don’t inspire confidence in the bedroom or don’t meet expectations sexually, life can be frustrating.”

According to the researchers who conducted the survey, unmarried couples have sex on average more than four times weekly. Once they’ve tripped down the aisle, however, intercourse decreases to once a week at best.

“It is at times like this when eyes start to wander, and folk start to think about having a no-strings affair with someone else,” the LovingLinks spokesperson said. “After 14 years of providing a service where married people can look for sex elsewhere, we have good reason to believe many relationships are strengthened by a little out-of-marriage activity.”

The survey’s results bolster that claim: Two-thirds of those who admitted extramarital affairs said the sex was “mind-blowing” compared to the standard fare at home. Of course, 80 percent of respondents said they had allowed marital sex to become stale, resorting to the same positions, times and places every time they make love with their spouse. In fact, 79 percent of respondents said they preferred getting a good night’s sleep over engaging in spontaneous intercourse, and two-thirds blamed their lack of interest on lives overflowing with things needing to be done.

“Modern marriages are becoming a little more open where sex is concerned, and these days we are quicker to forgive if someone has a little one night stand,” the LovingLinks spokesman told the Daily Mail. “It is never nice to learn that our partners aren’t satisfied in the bedroom department, but if sleeping with someone else spurs couples on to make more of an effort with each other, that can only be a good thing.”