How our sexuality changes over age

Most research about sex is done among younger people. Surprisingly enough, little is known about how our sexuality changes when people get older. Recently published research shows the differences between people of different ages for the first time.

The research

For this study, 1,522 adults between the ages of 21 and 92 have been interviewed. All respondents lived in the US and were not in a long term relationship. The research has been conducted by the UNLV and The Kinsey Institute and the results have been published in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences.

All respondents were asked how often they have had sex in the last year, how often they’d preferred to have sex, if they were satisfied with their sex life and if they were open to different sexual behaviours.

Women have less sex than men when they become older

The research shows that the frequency decreases for both men and women when they get older.But for women it reduces more than for men. Young men and women have sex just as much, but when they are getting older, women more often than men report to have less sex.

The ideal frequency also declines with age. People in their thirties say they’d like to have sex about 12 times a month (3 times a week), while people in their seventies say they prefer to have sex 4 times a month (once a week).

For men the ideal frequency is higher than for women. On average men would like to have sex twice more than women.

When men grow older, their satisfaction doesn’t change much. But for women, the satisfaction increases over time. Young men and women are about as satisfied with their sex life, but when people get older, women are satisfied more often than men.

Men don’t want to get married

The respondents were asked about their willingness to engage in certain forms of sex or relationships, like one-night stand, making a sex tape, getting married, … Young people were prepared to engage in experimenting more often than elderly. And men were prepared to experiment more often than women. Except when it comes to marriage. Women like to get married more often than men.

Caveats

This was not a longitudinal study. The respondents have not been followed over time. Therefor, it is impossible to say if the results are attributed to age alone, or if generation differences have an effect as well. Also, only persons that were not in a relationship have been interviewed only.

But it is striking though, that when people get older, frequency may decline, but satisfaction doesn’t. Quality goes over quantity.