Middle aged women are often thought to be beyond their sexual prime, but a recent study has shown that the sexual wellness and wellbeing of this age group is likely to far exceed that of younger women. Those who are sexually active during middle age are also likely to keep having sex as they get older, even if they have been diagnosed with some form of sexual dysfunction.
Based at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre, the team of researchers looked at data from a group of 602 women aged between 40 and 65 which reported on their sex lives, how sexually active they were and how important they felt sex was to their lives.
The lead author of the study, Dr. Holly Thomas, said that there was a popular preconception in the public that when women get older, sex becomes less important, and also that women stop having sex as they get older. Based on the study, it appears that most women continue to have sex during middle age.
Sexual dysfunction is a label that is frequently applied to women in this age group, but doctors and psychologists have long debated how useful it is to use this label at all. There is a test called the Female Sexual Function Index which is meant to test women’s sexual problems. There are 19 questions in the test, centring around orgasm, arousal, vaginal lubrication and any pain felt during sex.
As part of the recent study, the middle aged women who were sexually active took the test and then took it again four years later. Over 85 percent of the women who reported that they were sexually active when they first took the test, were still sexually active when they took the test again the second time.