ATTENTION, women: Sleep around! If not for yourselves, then do it for your future progeny.
That’s the news from a recent study, in which females who had multiple partners gave birth to bigger, healthier offspring than monogamous counterparts.
Of course, this was a study of a tiny Australian marsupial, the brown antechinus – but it lays some promising groundwork for human bed-hoppers, too.
Especially given that, as author Holly H. Hollenbeck cites in her book “The Sex Lives of Wives,” 45 to 55 percent of married women will sleep with someone other than their husband at some point during the marriage.
Sleazy as it may be, having several potential fathers of a child means survival of the fittest for sperm – resulting in champion kids sure to get accepted at the most competitive nursery schools.
Unfortunately, Mr. Reliable may be at a serious disadvantage in this capacity, writes Louann Brizendine, neuropsychiatrist and author of “The Female Brain.”
“An orgasm with an enticing male gives a greater likelihood that the sperm will make it to the egg,” she writes, and “women who have lovers on the side start to fake orgasm more often with their stable partners.”
The result: Up to 10 percent of supposed fathers aren’t actually related to their children.
So what’s behind all the promiscuity? The brown antechinus and the Manhattan gold-digger may have similar motivation. Dr. Diana Fisher, leader of the marsupial study, cited two primary causes:
“Trading sex for food and protection, and dealing with infertile males.”