I'm sure we can all think of a few good reasons why we have sex, but I'd wager that most of us would struggle to list 237 of them.
But this is exactly what US researchers found when they conducted a survey of 2,000 students at the University of Texas - and some of the reasons are enough to drive you to celibacy.
If you want to maintain the illusion that sex is all about pleasure (even if it's just your own), you might want to stop reading now.
Reasons given to the researchers, Cindy M Meston and David M Buss, for indulging in a bit of nookie include "I wanted to give someone else a sexually transmitted disease" and wanting to "change the topic of conservation". As one poster on the blog of Wisconsin law professor Ann Althouse comments: "I wonder what they were talking about?"
Ms Althouse herself has managed to trump the researchers by finding quite the most bizarre not to have sex - your partner's body is composed of dead animals.
