It's a stereotype that women can be ' clingy' post-intercourse - but a new study claims there's more to it than craving affection.

Almost half of all women could suffer from 'post-coital dysphoria', researchers say.

The condition means that, after sex, 46% of respondents could suffer from what has been termed "post-sex blues".

PCD is a condition which includes tearfulness, anxiety, agitation, a sense of melancholy or depression, or aggression.

The paper, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine , took in answers from 230 respondents to an online survey.

Although the blues, or PCD, didn't seem to he related to intimacy, it was considered something that 5% of the questioned women had suffered at least once in their lifetime.

A study conducted by the Queensland Institute of Technology in 2011 found that a third of women said they felt depressed even after satisfactory sex.

Published in the International Journal of Sexual Health , the study suggested that changes in hormones post-climax could be to blame for attitude changes and headaches.

Lead researcher Dr Robert Schweitzer said: “The results of our original research in this area have now been confirmed in an international multinational study on negative postcoital emotions, which appear to have evolutionary functions."