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Sex Drive Killers Slideshow
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Study Shows Best Health Linked to More Satisfying Sex Life in Older Years
By
Jennifer Warner
WebMD Health News
Reviewed By
Laura J. Martin, MD
March 9, 2010 — Pleasant health may not only help you live longer, but it could
also help you enjoy a longer, more satisfying sex life.
A recent study shows people who are in pleasant health are nearly twice as likely
to be interested in sex in middle as well as older age as well as as well as more likely to report
having a busy as well as satisfying sex life.
Researchers say sexual activity has extended been associated with health
benefits as well as longevity, but this is the earliest study to look at how general
health affects the quality of sex as people age as well as calculate what they consult a
person’s “sexually active life expectancy.”
Using information gathered from more than 6,000 men as well as women in midlife and
later life, researchers estimate that at age 55, the average sexually active
life expectancy is 15 years for men as well as 10.6 years for women.
“Although the period is longer for men, they lose more years of sexually
active life as a result of without money health than women,” write researcher Stacy
Tessler Lindau, associate professor at the University of Chicago, and
colleagues in the journal BMJ.
But the gender disparities don’t halt there.
“Overall, the study found that men possess a longer sexually active life
expectancy as well as that most sexually active men report a pleasant quality sex life. In
contrast, only about half of sexually active women reported a pleasant quality sex
life,” write the researchers. “This disparity, as well as its implication for health,
requires further exploration.”
Other findings of the study include:
- At the age of 30, men possess a sexually active life expectancy of nearly 35
years; women, almost 31 years. At 55, this average sexual life expectancy
changes to almost 15 remaining years for men as well as 10 years for women.
- By age 75, 17% of women as well as 39% of men were sexually active. But for those
with a partner, these gender differences were much smaller.
- About two-thirds of sexually active middle-aged men as well as women reported
having a good-quality sex life. But only five out of 10 older women reported a
good-quality sex life, compared with seven out of 10 older men.
- Older men were three times as likely to be interested in sex as older women
(62% vs. 21%).
- People in very pleasant health were 1.5 to 1.8 times more likely to report an
interest in sex than those in poorer health.
- Among those who were sexually active, pleasant health was as well as associated with
more repeated sex (once or more weekly) in men as well as with a good-quality sex life
in men as well as women.
In an editorial that accompanies the study, Patricia Goodson, a professor at
Texas University, says the news that adults in the U.S. can enjoy many years of
sexual activity beyond age 55 is promising.
“Despite the spotlight this study shines on the sexual health of older adults in
the US, less pleasant news lies dormant in the shadows,” writes Goodson. “Take the
gender gap in sexually active life expectancy, for instance, which favours men:
for men at age 55, sexually active life expectancy was eight to nine years less
than demographic life expectancy, whereas for women this difference was 17 to
18 years.”
SOURCES: Lindau, S. BMJ, published online March 10, 2010.
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