Why your sex drive won't decline with age

Research suggests women feel less sexy the longer they stay in a relationship - I don't believe it

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• By Miriam Stoppard

Commentators would have us believe that a woman’s sex drive declines faster than a man’s.

Or, put another way, a woman’s sex drive dwindles over time whereas a man’s stays on the up and up.

I don’t believe a word of it. Research from the University of Guelph in Canada suggests the theory that women feel less sexy the longer they stay in a relationship. But that doesn’t mean that her basic sexual urges are declining.

The former has little to do with the latter.

A woman may want sex less the longer she stays with someone because of boredom, tedium or no longer fancying her partner.

But that’s not to say that in a new relationship her sexual urges wouldn’t rise like an erupting volcano.

The problem is, with women and with this condemnatory research, that a woman has to be turned on by a man in order to feel any sexual yearnings for him. No wonder the research found that men seemed to want sex no matter how long they were in a relationship.

Men want sex for mechanical reasons – because the millions of sperm their testicles churn out 24/7 have to seek an outlet, given that men can’t switch off sperm production.

Masturbation will do, but any woman is better, even one they’ve been united with for decades. So the interpretation of this research is false.

What’s worse is that the research is being touted as proof that a woman’s desire for sex drops off as she gets older.

Wrong. There are rafts of research showing a woman’s sexual desire doesn’t decline with age.

A splendid study from America on women aged 70, 80 and 90 showed that the only thing stopping them from having sex was the absence of a partner.

Even after the menopause many women feel a renewal of their sexual urge, and for good reason.

Their ovaries may no longer be producing oestrogen but they continue to produce androgens, the hormones responsible for sex drive.

There is more than a grain of truth in the adage “use it, or lose it”. A woman’s body will still respond very readily to sexual stimulation whatever her age, so sex should always be always on the menu.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/why-your-sex-drive-wont-decline-765517