TREND: Sex squatting. It's not what you think.

This is a community service announcement for single women who have an apartment/house/bed/couch.

There’s a new trend on the rise that may just terrify you. It’s called sex squatting – and no, it’s not a new type of sex position.

(Okay, so maybe it is kind of a sex position. But it’s ALSO a new trend. Stay with us here….)

It’s all about the rise of men who sleep with women, and then stay at their apartments. It might be for one night, or they might stay for a week. Or even longer.

The New York Post refers to them as “sex gypsies” and defines them as:

People who hook up largely so they have a place to stay. They’re not quite homeless, but they’d rather go to your place than theirs. And they’d like to stay for as long as possible.

Think of gypsies and you might get a picture of the Roma Gypsies or the ones who travel in caravans and read each other’s palms. (Or those crazy Foxtel shows about the weddings and various life events celebrated by the travellers of Ireland and England.)

You don’t think of the guy you slept with last year that ended up coming back to your place every night for a few weeks because you were “having so much fun together”.

Or the guy you picked up in a club on a Friday night and only farewelled on a Monday morning after an intense weekend of sexy time, interspersed occasionally with food.

But now… you know that you might just have been sex-gypsied.

And if any of the above situations have happened to any of your female friends? They might have been sex-gypsied too.

It can, of course, also happen to men. But according to the New York Post, women are more likely to take in sex gypsies because they are “socialised to take care of others”.

Additionally (BRACE YOURSELVES – GIANT STEREOTYPE ALERT), women “also take better care of their living spaces, and may be more eager for a relationship.” Because, you know, if you’re lonely in that apartment of yours – a sex gypsy is just about the next best thing to a real proper boyfriend!

Relevant sex-gypsy-situation example: In season two of Girls, Shoshanna is sex-gypsied by her new boyfriend Ray. They’re at dinner together talking about boyfriends and girlfriends living together when she suddenly realises that Ray has been staying at her house a lot. In fact… every day. Because he doesn’t have his own home. Or anywhere else to sleep, really.

The best way to avoid the sex gypsy? Ask to go to their place. And leave after one night.

Has anyone out there been unknowingly sex-gypsied?