Sexual satisfaction with women increases with age
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
A new study of sexually active older women found that a woman's sexual satisfaction increases with age. Most participants in the study reported frequent episodes of arousal and orgasm, which continue even in old age, despite the low level 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) evaluated the sexual activity and satisfaction of 806 elderly women, whose health was monitored for 40 years. The study analyzed the prevalence of the current sexual activity of women; characteristics related to sexual life, including demographics, general health, use of contraceptive drugs; frequency of excitement, orgasm, pain during intercourse, sexual desire and satisfaction in elderly women.
The average age of participants in the study was 67 years, 63% of them were in postmenopausal women. Half of the respondents reported that their partner was sexually active during the last 4 weeks. Most sexually active women (67.1%) achieved orgasm. The youngest and oldest women in the study reported the highest frequency of satisfaction from orgasm.
40% of all women said that they had never or almost never felt sexual desire, and 1/3 of sexually active women reported a low level of sexual desire. Lead researcher Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, MD, comments: "Despite the relationship between sexual desire and other sexual functions, only 1 in 5 sexually active women reported a high sexual desire." Approximately half of women aged 80 and over reported about the presence of excitement and orgasm in most cases, but rarely reported the presence of sexual desire.In contrast to the traditional sexual model in which desire precedes sex, these results suggest that the wives ins sexual intercourse due to the need or duty to the spouse of the marriage. "
Regardless of the status of a partner or sexual activity, 61% of all women in this group were satisfied with their sex lives. Despite the fact that with age, there is a decrease in sexual satisfaction, the percentage of RBS sexual satisfaction of women actually increases with age, with about half of women older than 80 years declared sexual satisfaction almost always or always. "It turned out that sexual desire is not always necessary for sexual gratification, and participants who were not sexually active achieved sexual satisfaction by touching, caressing or other intimate mechanisms," says the first author Susan Trompeter.
"Emotional and physical intimacy with a partner can be more important than orgasm, a more positive approach to women's sexual health with an emphasis on sexual satisfaction may be more beneficial to women than concentrating on female sexual activity," concluded Trompeter.
[