Why do we assume that as we age, our desire for sex is going to fade?S

Dr. Ruth, Westheimer, PhD, Sex Therapist:

God forbid! Don't assume it. 

People after 50 should continue to have a wonderful sex life if they so desire, if they say they don't want it anymore, I say goodbye, but if they so desire, but they have to be sexually literate. 

A woman has to know that after menopause she needs a lubricant, not to engage in intercourse with a not well lubricated vagina, it's painful, she's going to say, who needs it. 

The secrets of our sexess

Here three long-term couples who HAVE made it work tell us how..

10 YEARS

'Kissing and cuddling makes us want each other more'

Therese, 45, and Andrew Sahey, 46, from Teddington, Middx have been married 10 years. Andrew is a hairdresser and Therese a childminder. Therese has two grown-up children.

Therese Says: Intimacy without sex is crucial and it's what makes our sex life so good. After you've been together a while men often stop being touchy-feely with women for anything other than sex. So when a man kisses them they think, "Oh no, here we go."

Andrew has a higher sex drive than me but he will often say: "I want us to kiss and cuddle but that's all" so I don't get jumpy and just enjoy the intimacy.