New York, Dec 12 (IANS): Helping your spouse in household work is fine but this may ruin your sex life, researchers say, adding that women may see men doing "feminine" jobs as less sexually attractive.

Studying data based on relationships of 4,561 middle-aged US couples over 20 years, researchers from Juan March Institute in Madrid found that men who do more traditionally "feminine" chores have less sex.

They found that mopping the kitchen and washing up dishes do not help men get lucky between the sheets - with middle-aged women at least.

The results showed that men performed around 55 percent of "masculine" tasks such as paying bills and mowing the lawn.

Men who stopped doing household chores had sex one and a half times more a month than those who kept with kitchen duties, Daily Mail reported.

"Couples with similar roles may feel more like siblings than lovers," the authors noted.

The findings were published in the journal American Sociological Review.