Dr Padmini Prasad, gynaecologist and sexologist with the Institute of Sexual Medicine in the City explains: The most common reason for extramarital affair is disturbed inter-personal relationships between married couples.

With little time on their hands, working professionals find colleagues more sympathising to their problems. Even before they know it, this person becomes a companion and you have an affair brewing up. It can happen at any age, after several years of marriage and in a perfectly well-settled household.

Sexual discontentment is yet another factor that drives people to look beyond their spouse. Many Indian women equate menopause to a complete end to sexual relationships, unaware that it is nothing but a myth. This is frustrating for the husband and he ends up having an extramarital affair.

When children are involved many, claims the doctor, want to save their marriage. The present generation of women, as opposed to the belief that women always are forgiving, don’t always consider it worth holding onto a marriage after they discover about their husbands’ infidelity. Why should they, they ask? Divorce is no longer a taboo and neither is starting life afresh. That’s the attitude prevalent.

As for the men, if the wife is having an extramarital affair, it is difficult in most cases for the husband to forgive his spouse as it is a severe blow to his ego.