Barbie DavenporteSorry guys, it's true. Men and women over the age of 40 (your parents! your GRANDPARENTS!!!) do sex to each other. They might not be getting it on just as often as you, but a recent study shows there's a good chance the female elders might be enjoying it more.
Susan E. Trompeter, MD; Ricki Bettencourt, MS; and Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, MD, released the results of a study that examined almost 1,000 women aged 40 and above with a median age of 67. By us young people's standards that constitutes as officially “old.”
About half of the respondents said they'd had some kind of sexual activity in the previous month – sexual activity being defined as both with or without a partner – and though women reported less frequent arousal, lubrication and orgasm with age, the oldest of the group said they were having better sex – and more orgasms.
Hard to believe that this might get better with age.
In fact, the youngest of the bunch (age 50 and below) and the oldest (age 80 and above) reported more frequent O-faces than the ladies whose ages fell in the middle. Even with a decrease in the natural turn-on process, women who were older said they were more satisfied with their orgasms.
But before you call Grammie a slut, keep in mind that this doesn't mean sex is happening more often or as the result of random hookups. Only half of the respondents said they'd been intimate in the last month, 80% of those reporting having had a partner, and 79.5% of those ladies said they were living with said sex cohort.
It's clear that as we get older our physical sex lives dwindle, but that's not necessarily because we're growing more wrinkled, lumpier and arthritic. Our hormone levels deplete, our natural “need” for the endorphin rush lessens, and it's certainly less appealing to fold ourselves into the piledriver position after a hip replacement.
In fact, almost 40% of the total respondents reported that they never or almost never felt sexual desire, and 1/3 said their libidos were pretty low. But regardless, 61% said they were moderately satisfied with their overall sex life.
It appears that these women were perfectly happy with the sexual activity and intimacy (or lack thereof) in their lives despite its infrequency or reduced appeal.
Maybe it's because they've had more time than the rest of us to figure out what exactly they need to feel satisfied. Or possibly that their years of practice, however sporadic it might have been, have taught them the precise path to personal pleasure.
Or maybe they're just too old for this.
Whatever it might be, remember that we're all sexual beings no matter what year in which we were born, and there's more to being intimate and physically appealing than having a taut ass or those V-shaped thrust muscles. (Though they certainly help.)
Respect each other and there's a good chance we'll all end up checking the “very satisfied” box on our own nursing home sex surveys.
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