Women May Live Longer than Men but Dont Enjoy,
Engage in Sex as Long
Among 75 to 85 year old senior citizens almost 40%
of men are sexually active; just 17% of women
March 11, 2010 A new study reported in the
British Medical Journal confirms what we knew men are more interested
in sex than women but it also finds that this interest in sex,
actually having sex and enjoying sex it is a gap that widens between the
sexes as people age. Among those 75 to 85 years old, almost 40 percent
of men, compared to just 17 percent of women, are sexually active.
At age 55, men can expect another 15 years of
sexual activity, but women that age should expect less than 11 years,
according to a study by University of Chicago researchers published
early online March 10 by BMJ. Men in good or excellent health at
55 can add 5 to 7 years to that number. Equally healthy women gain
slightly less, 3 to 6 years.
One consolation for women is that many of them seem
not to miss it.
Men tend to marry younger women, die sooner and
care more about sex, the study confirmed. Although 72 percent of men
aged 75 to 85 have partners, fewer than 40 percent of women that age do.
Only half of women 75-85 who remained sexually
active rated their sex lives as "good," and only 11 percent of all women
that age report regularly thinking about or being interested in sex.
Among those age 57 to 85 not living with a partner,
57 percent of men were interested in sex, compared to only 11 percent of
women.
"Interest in sex, participation in sex and even the
quality of sexual activity were higher for men than women, and this
gender gap widened with age," said lead author Stacy Tessler Lindau, MD,
associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of
Chicago.
But the study also "affirms a positive association
between later-life health, sexual partnership and sexual activity," she
said.
Lindau and co-author Natalia Gavrilova focused on
two large surveys, the National Survey of Midlife Development, involving
about 3,000 adults aged 25 to 74 and completed in 1996, and the National
Social Life Health and Aging Project, involving another 3,000 adults
aged 57 to 85, completed in 2006.
Participants provided information about their
relationship status and rated the quality of their sex lives and how
often they had sex. They also rated the level of their general health as
poor, fair, good, very good or excellent.
The results showed that men are more likely to be
sexually active, report a good sex life and be interested in sex than
women. This difference was most stark among the 75 to 85-year-old group,
where almost 40 percent of men, compared to 17 percent of women, were
sexually active.
The study also introduced a new health measure,
"sexually active life expectancy," or SALE, the average remaining years
of sexually active life. For men, SALE was about ten years lower than
total life expectance. For women it was 20 years lower.
Men at the age of 30, for example, have a sexually
active life expectancy of nearly 35 years, but they can, on average,
expect to remain alive for 45 years, including a sexless final decade.
For 30-year-old women, SALE is almost 31 years but
total life expectancy is more than 50. So men that age can anticipate
remaining sexually active for 78 percent of their remaining lifespan,
while women at 30 can expect to remain sexually active for only 61
percent of the remaining years.
The authors conclude that "sexually active life
expectancy estimation is a new life expectancy tool than can be used for
projecting public health and patient needs in the arena of sexual
health," and that "projecting the population patterns of later life
sexual activity is useful for anticipating need for public health
resources, expertise and medical services."
In an accompanying editorial, Professor Patricia
Goodson from Texas University says Lindau and Gavrilova's research is
both refreshing and hopeful. She says: "the study bears good news in the
form of hope ... the news that adults in the US can enjoy many years of
sexual activity beyond age 55 is promising."
Goodson adds that many unanswered questions remain
in the field of older people and sexuality, such as problems with
measurement and silence regarding the sexual health of ageing
homosexual, bisexual or intersexed people. "They stand as dim reminders
of the limitations inherent in applying science to the study of complex
human realities, and the cultural values shaping the topics we choose to
study," she concludes.
March 11, 2010 A new study reported in the
British Medical Journal confirms what we knew men are more interested
in sex than women but it also finds that this interest in sex,
actually having sex and enjoying sex it is a gap that widens between the
sexes as people age. Among those 75 to 85 years old, almost 40 percent
of men, compared to just 17 percent of women, are sexually active.
