This Week in Sex is a weekly summary of news and research related to sexual behavior, sexuality education, contraception, STIs, and more.

Does More Sex Make You Look Younger?

David Weeks, a British psychologist who has been studying both sexuality and aging, has spent the last ten years asking men and women of all ages about their sex lives. He presented exploratory research earlier this month to the British Psychological Society in which he concluded that more regular sex can make a person look five to seven years younger. Specifically, Weeks says that among interview subjects ages 40 to 50, those who looked younger than their age claimed to have about 50 percent more sex than those who looked their age (which translates to having sex three times a week instead of two).

There is a biological explanation for this, as sex releases endorphins that ease pain and anxiety and improve sleep. Sex also boosts circulation, which is good for the heart and skin.

Still, I am a little skeptical about his conclusions. First, looking younger is certainly a subjective assessment. Moreover, though it seems possible that the sex caused the youthful appearance, it seems just as likely that those who appear youthful are also better fit and happier and, therefore, up for more frequent rolls in the hay.

Either way, Weeks’ ultimate conclusions are ones we should all take to heart. He told the conference, “The stereotype of an elderly person is that when they get their pension and bus pass, they stop having sex and that’s not true. … Sexuality is definitely not the prerogative of younger people and nor should it be.”

Put the Phone Down

My husband often yells at me for checking email and texting during dinner, and I even admit that I once used my blackberry while my feet were in stirrups waiting for my OB to come into the exam room. But I swear I have never picked up my phone during sex, really I haven’t. Apparently, however, many people do.

A survey of over 2,000 U.S. adults, about half of who owned smartphones, was conducted by Harris Interactive for the cell phone company Jumio. The survey found that 9 percent of smartphone owners used their devices during sex. The number jumped when only those ages 18 to 34 were included—20 percent of these younger adults admit to using their phones during sex. According to Jumio’s chief marketing officer, Marc Barach, the survey shows that people see their phones “as an extension of themselves, taking them everywhere they go—even the most unorthodox place from the shower to their commute, from the dinner table to the bedroom.”

He didn’t mention the toilet, but I’m sure people send texts from the porcelain throne as well.

Lubes Go Kosher

Good news for all couples who skip pork and separate meat from dairy in the kitchen: Trigg Laboratories has them covered in the bedroom as well. The company has worked with the Rabbinical Council of California in a review that lasted two years and can now boast that 95 percent of lubricants in its “Wet” product line are certified Kosher. That’s right, these personal lubes, will now be sold with “K” on the package. As a company spokesman put it “we maintain the highest standards of purity and answer to a higher authority.”

I’m guessing using them with the bacon condom we reported on a few weeks back would be frowned upon.

No Really, Rep. Bachmann, It’s a Back Massager

Rex Elsass, CEO of Strategy Group for Media, learned an old lesson the hard way: “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” Elsass, whose group has been described as a leading conservative Christian political consulting firm, apparently intended to send retiring Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) a head massager to help with her migraines, but the staff person he sent to Brookstone picked out something that, according to BuzzFeed, more closely resembled “a female pleasure machine.” Yep, the group mailed the congresswoman, who vowed to outlaw pornography if elected president, a vibrator.

It’s not clear which model the employee bought, but a quick look at Brookstone’s website shows that the gadget store, which once limited itself to things that could pass for a back massager, like Hitachi’s Magic Wand, now sells a wide array of “intimate massagers.” Think they sent her a “Rabbit”? We may never know—the firm “successfully retrieved” the package before it got to the congresswoman. Her loss.