Scientists have warning for women who have sex less than once a week

Now, while it's absolutely no one's business how many times you do or don't get it on per week - it hasn't stopped a group of scientists from putting forward a warning for any ladies out there who have sex less than once a week.

Medical researchers at Walden University in Pennsylvania used a pretty large giant database from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for the study, with the national survey data including information on depression, obesity, ethnicity and reports of sexual activity from 14,542 men and women who were pooled for their analysis.

The participants were asked: "In the past 12 months, about how many times have you had vaginal or anal sex?" with the various options including; never, once, two to 11 times, 12 to 51 times, 52 to 103 times, 104 to 364 times and 365 times or more in the past 12 months.

Scientists have made a pretty bold claim in a study all about getting down and dirty (Meng Yiren / Getty Images)

According to the reports, around 95 per cent of participants had sex more than 12 times per year, with 38 percent getting down and dirty once a week or more.

Once the data was gathered, the team compared the medical information with another CDC database on deaths up to the end of the year 2015.

This was then double-checked against US National Death Index (NDI) death certificate records for those specific years.

"Participants who were not matched with death records were considered to be alive through the follow-up period," the team shared in their study which was published in the Journal of Psychosexual Health.

The researchers found that increased risk of death increased a pretty sizeable 197 per cent for individuals who reported low sexual frequency and depression over just depression alone.

There was a 'beneficial effect' in 'females only' (Westend61 / Getty Images)

"Individuals with depression but high sexual frequency don't feel harmful effects of depression as much," lead author Dr Srikanta Banerjee told MailOnline.

Explaining the findings further, he continued to note: "What we found is that, among females only, there is a beneficial effect. The theory would be that depression affects men in different ways than females."

"Depression is something that leads to more increased mortality due to health outcomes," the former CDC researcher added. "So perhaps sex is more effective because of the severity of how depression impacts females."

Dr Banerjee noted there are 'multiple theories' as to why women between the ages of 20 and 59 who had sex less than once a week were at a 70 per cent increased risk of death within five years, saying: "For instance, sex releases endorphins that may prevent severe health outcomes."

There are 'multiple theories' behind the findings (LB Studios / Getty Images)

Blood samples showed that particular women who had sex less than once a week had elevated levels of a key protein linked to inflammation, which can cause damage to healthy cells, tissues and organs.

Adversely, the participants who had sex more than once a week had lower levels of the protein and no increased death risk.

Interestingly, however, it was the complete opposite for the men, as those who had the most sex were almost most at risk of early death, according to the study.

"With high sexual frequency," the researchers wrote, "males were six times more likely to experience increased mortality than females."

In women at least, the study states that sexual expression, which is quantitatively measured through sexual frequency, is an essential component of both physical and mental health.

"Sexual activity is important for overall cardiovascular health possibly due to reduction of heart rate variability and blood flow increase," it concluded.

Now, while no one should ever feel any kind of pressure when it comes to having or not having intercourse, you can't deny, it's a pretty fascinating study!