Cleaning is ruining your sex life and not in the way you think

Chemicals found in cleaning products, rubber ducks and food packaging could be lowering women's sex drives according to research presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM)'s annual meeting in Hawaii.

Research looking at phthalates, a softener which makes plastics bendy, found they were linked to a lower libido in women. It was already known that they affected sexual function in men.

Dr Emily Barrett, of the University of Rochester School of Medicine, in New York, told the Telegraph: "If you think of a rubber duck or raincoat or shower curtain being soft and flexible, its likely its phthalates that give them that flexibility.

"We are learning that phthalates are endocrine disruptors, they interfere with normal hormones in the body – testosterone and it looks like oestrogen as well.

"And we know that both testosterone and oestrogen are really important for many things, including libido, so we were interested in looking at whether women who had higher levels of these chemicals in their bodies have a lack of interest in sex."

More: The technique that allowed a paralysed man to walk again