Fifty Shades will spark rise in sex injuries - expert

People are experimenting outside the bedroom - such as dining tables and kitchen benches - resulting in injury - expert. Photo / 123RF

Love hurts: injuries sustained during sex have hit a six year high, ACC figures reveal.

And a Queenstown physiotherapist believe the claims could spike as people get more adventurous.

Last year, nearly 300 people made claims to the Accident Compensation Corporation for injuries sustained during sex and more than $100,000 was paid out by ACC.

Physiotherapist Melissa Davidson said people copying the sexual exploits of characters in the popular erotic movie Fifty Shades of Grey could result in a greater number of claims being made this year.

Physiotherapist Melissa Davidson.

''People are getting more adventurous in how they do things and where they do things,'' Ms Davidson said.

As popular culture was becoming more explicit, people were being more adventurous trying to match movie stars' exploits and many were overestimating their body's flexibility, Ms Davidson said.

People were experimenting outside the bedroom - such as dining tables and kitchen benches - resulting in injury when the furniture collapsed under the weight of the activity, she said.

The stories of the injuries were shared by clients, and among physiotherapists, although personal details were not disclosed, she said.

Of the claims made nationally in the past six years, men accounted for 70 per cent. In Otago and Southland the gender percentage was the same.

Ms Davidson said men were overrepresented in the statistics because they often acted without thinking of the consequences or attempted to prove their manliness.