The answer, according to Dr. Claire Bailey of the University of Bristol, is: "If you're female, probably not. If you're male? You betcha."

• In fact, she says, there is little or no risk of a woman's overdosing on sex. Regular sessions in the sheets, she says, can not only firm a woman's stomach and buttocks but also improve her posture.

• "If a woman is premenopausal and otherwise healthy," says Dr. George Winch Jr., an obstetrician/gynecologist in Elko, Nevada, "her having an extraordinary amount of intercourse ought not to pose a problem -- so long as no sexually transmitted disease is introduced and there's not an inadvertent pregnancy."

• Women who abstain from sex run some risks. In postmenopausal women, one of the risks include vaginal atrophy. Winch has a middle-aged patient of whom he says, "She hasn't had intercourse in three years. Just isn't interested. The opening of her vagina is narrowing from disuse. It's a condition that can lead to dysparenia, or pain associated with intercourse."

• As for men, urologist Dr. J. Francois Eid says it's definitely possible to get too much of a good thing, now that drugs such as Viagra and Levitra have given men far more staying power than may actually be good for them.

• The penis, says Eid, is wonderfully resilient. But everything has its limits. According to Eid, "It is possible for a young man who is very forceful and who likes rough sex, to damage his erectile tissue."

• The drugs increase rigidity, and moreover, they make it possible for a man to have second and third orgasms without having to wait out intermission. There's a reason the penis in its natural state undergoes a period of flaccidity -- that's when it takes a breather. The blood within it is replenished with oxygen.

• "If you do not allow the penis to rest, then the muscle tissue does not get enough oxygen. The individual gets prolonged erections, gets decreased oxygen to tissue, and could potentially suffer priapism," adds Eid.