You can now get paid £5,000 to design a sex toy - and you'll even earn royalties on it

Lovehoney has launched a new ‘Design A Sex Toy’ competition with a prize of £5,000, as well as the chance to earn royalties on your product

Sex toys are often seen as taboo, but if you’re not too prudish about the devices you could get paid to design one.

Lovehoney has launched a new ‘Design A Sex Toy’ competition with a prize of £5,000, as well as the chance to earn royalties on your product.

The sex toy firm is accepting toy designs for penises, prostates, vulvas, solo play and couples, although the design must have a ‘sci-fi’ theme.

Lovehoney said: “Can you transport your imagination ten years down the road and give us a design that will help shape the future of sex?

“If so, you could be in with a chance of bagging a 5,000 cash prize in your local currency. And that’s not all.

“The winning design has a chance of being made into an actual product, which will go on sale on the Lovehoney website, and could earn you hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties!”

These royalties can really add up over the years. According to Lovehoney, the winner of the 2009 competition has earned over £300,000 in royalties for his oral sex toy!

The competition has three categories - Students, Professional Designers and the Public - although the prize money is the same for each category.

The competition is open now and closes on February 21.

The competition comes shortly after another sex toy company penned an open letter to the Department of Health, urging the NHS to prescribe masturbation to stressed patients.

Kate Moyle, a sex therapist at LELO UK, said: “The function of pleasure is to make us feel good; and self-pleasure and masturbation can have positive benefits for our health in a variety of ways, including the release of the hormone oxytocin which can lower cortisol levels, getting to know our bodies better, and building sexual self-confidence.

“Potentially recommended as a part of an integrated wellness programme, masturbation could be of benefit to some patients, when put forward with confidence and educative information.”