Canadian lubrication and dryness stats: the real data

This is one topic pulled out of our full Canadian sex statistics hub, kept on its own page so it's easier to find and cite directly. This is genuinely four different questions blurred together constantly elsewhere: whether someone experiences vaginal dryness, whether they use commercial lubricant, what type, and what Canadian data does and doesn't cover.

Dryness rates

On dryness specifically: the studies below asked about dryness or lubrication difficulty during sex — not whether someone is physiologically capable of natural lubrication. We're not converting "14.7% report dryness" into "85.3% can naturally lubricate"; those aren't the same claim, and a person can lubricate fine most of the time and still experience dryness on a given occasion.

These are three separate studies with three separate samples — not one trend line. Within the 40–59 group specifically, postmenopausal women were significantly more likely to report dryness than premenopausal women in the same sample. See our full guide to genitourinary syndrome of menopause for the clinical picture behind that pattern.

Lubricant use, by act and age

Source: Trojan/SIECCAN 2019 university student study (ages 18–24). Respondents were asked whether they used personal lubricant to enhance pleasure at their latest intercourse, not whether dryness required it.

Lubricant use was roughly twice as common in men's latest anal-sex encounters as in their latest vaginal-sex encounters. That tracks with the body not self-lubricating for anal sex at all — see our anal sex prep guide.

Midlife Canadians (55–59), same Trojan/SIECCAN research program: lubricant used at most recent intercourse by 26% of women and 22% of men, with use increasing with age within the broader 40–59 sample. Put next to the university figures, lube use during vaginal intercourse isn't just an older-adults pattern — roughly 1 in 5 young Canadian adults reported it too, and the survey framed it as pleasure-enhancing, not dryness-driven.

Broader product use

Source: a separate Canadian survey of 1,435 adults (recruited online, overwhelmingly cisgender women) asked about vaginal products in general, not tied to a specific sexual encounter.

Treat this one carefully: it combines moisturizers and lubricants into one category, and use wasn't necessarily tied to partnered sex.

For picking a type yourself, our lube 101 guide covers what water-based, silicone-based, and oil-based lubricants are each actually good for.

Sources

• Trojan/SIECCAN, 2019 Sexual Health of Canadian University Students Study. Preliminary report (PDF).
• Sex-toy use and vaginal health: a 1,435-participant Canadian survey, published in the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality and related work on PMC.
• Vaginal dryness, 18–64: Canadian data cited in a lubricant-use study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, via ScienceDirect.
• Vaginal dryness and sexual problems among midlife Canadians (40–59), a national survey of 2,400 adults, published on PubMed.
• Lubrication difficulty among Canadian women 40–80, published on PubMed.
• Lubricant product categories available through Canadian retailers: a 2025 clinical review, published on PMC.
• Lubricant type during receptive anal sex — U.S. data (Los Angeles and Baltimore): published on PMC.