Swinging, also often referred to as wife/husband/partner swapping, is a sexual act where partners in committed relationships, typically marriages, swap partners for sexual intercourse for mutual enjoyment. Dissimilar to cuckolding, this isn’t for embarrassment or a means of enjoying submission, as typically both partners want a sexual experience with someone else and instead exist within non-monogamy and, often, open relationships. Swinging is often enjoyed to add variety to a couple’s sex life, bringing extra enjoyment and fun into the sexual relationship between the husband and wife and appeasing the curiosity of couples who may not have experienced much of their sexuality away from their partner.

Partner swapping is often enjoyed privately between two couples. Still, it is also not uncommon for swingers’ parties to be enjoyed, where a more significant number of teams and individuals enjoy each other’s sexual company. Such parties can often be a one-time social engagement, but they can be regularly organized in many friendship groups and online chat communities. Such activities can often also be enjoyed at a sex club where specific nights may be held mainly for swingers, or even just typical play within a regular night could easily involve married couples swapping partners. For those afraid to go to a club or without an online chat community or friendship group to partner swap within, there are now apps to help people find others to swap partners with in more modern times. These apps typically work much like Tinder but for couples to chat on.

Swinging, as a form of casual or non-monogamous sex, can be understood to hold the same risks as other similar escapades. Therefore, partakers must be careful to avoid contracting and spreading STIs (as within a specific community, one outbreak could quickly affect many people). Ensuring everyone wears condoms is a great way to continue enjoying more simple forms of sex without endangering your own health, which could affect you and your partner and your subsequent relationship. For those wanting to forego the use of condoms, having a small community to swing within, with each individual having to undertake regular sexual health tests, is another way to manage and protect your health. However, using your protection will always be a great way to keep yourself safe. A condom also limits the ability to gain pregnancy within swinging, something that could undoubtedly complicate not only an individual’s relationship with their committed partner but also the individual they had sex with, as well as their partner if they had one. Such a situation could quickly become difficult to manage or messy in many different ways and is typically regarded as one of the more frightening potential consequences of engaging in swinger activity. When a couple is privately trying for a child, it is generally recommended within the online swinger chat community to cease activity with others several months before trying to ensure that the child will biologically be from the intended partner and not a different individual.