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Sexual satisfaction in women increases with age
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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A new study of sexually active older women has found that women's sexual satisfaction increases with age. Most of the study participants reported frequent episodes of arousal and orgasm that continued into old age, despite low levels of sexual desire.
The results of the study were published in the January issue of The American Journal Medicine.
Scientists from the University of California (USA) assessed the sexual activity and satisfaction of 806 older women whose health was monitored for 40 years. The study analyzed the prevalence of current sexual activity in women; characteristics associated with sexual life, including demographics, general health, use of contraceptives; frequency of arousal, orgasm, pain during intercourse, sexual desire and satisfaction in older women.
The average age of participants in the study was 67 years, with 63% of them postmenopausal. Half of the respondents reported that their partner had been sexually active in the past 4 weeks. Most sexually active women (67.1%) had achieved orgasm. The youngest and oldest women in the study reported the highest frequency of orgasmic satisfaction.
Forty percent of all women said they never or almost never felt sexual desire, and one-third of sexually active women reported low levels of sexual desire. Lead researcher Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, MD, comments: "Despite the association between sexual desire and other sexual functioning, only 1 in 5 sexually active women reported high sexual desire. About half of women aged 80 years or older reported arousal and orgasm most of the time, but rarely reported sexual desire. In contrast to the traditional sexual model in which desire precedes sex, these results suggest that women engaged in sexual activity out of necessity or obligation to their spouse."
Regardless of partner status or sexual activity, 61 percent of all women in this group were satisfied with their sex lives. While sexual satisfaction tends to decline with age, the RBS percentage of women's sexual satisfaction actually increases with age, with about half of women over 80 reporting sexual satisfaction most or all of the time. "As it turns out, sexual desire is not always necessary for sexual satisfaction. Participants who were not sexually active achieved sexual satisfaction through touching, caressing, or other intimate mechanisms," says first author Susan Trompeter.
"Emotional and physical intimacy with a partner may be more important than orgasm. A more positive approach to women's sexual health with an emphasis on sexual satisfaction may be more beneficial for women than a focus on women's sexual performance," Trompeter concluded.
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