Older Australians are getting more sex than researchers suspected, says a survey showing about a third of men and women do it more than once a week.
Australian statistics from a global sex study have given a rare scientific glimpse of the sexual habits of people aged 40 to 80.
It shows 83 per cent of men and 74 per cent of women in the age group have had sex in the past year.
But the lead Australian researcher, renowned sex therapist Dr Rosie King, says that it’s even more significant how many are having a lot of sex.
“We found 38 per cent of mature men and 29 per cent of mature women were having sex more than once a week,” Dr King said.
“That’s a significant amount of older men and women having a lot of sex, perhaps more than many of us suspected.”
Dr King said the results, published in the CSIRO journal Sexual Health, were “exciting” because most of the 1500 participants were in long-term relationships.
“These people are not frothy young singles out at the clubs having hot casual sex,” she said.
“They’re more likely to be at home with their loved one in front of the fire. So, in that respect, it’s quite impressive.”
But there were problems in the bedroom too, with a quarter of the men admitting they regularly suffered from premature ejaculation and erectile difficulties.
Dr King said issues with sexual function increased with age, as more men developed diabetes and obesity, and started taking medication known to affect performance.
Problems were also common among women, with a quarter saying they have trouble reaching orgasm and a third admitting to a lack of sexual interest.
“For a lot of these women, their sex drive isn’t like what they see on Sex and the City or read about in romance novels so they think there’s something wrong with them, when it’s totally normal,” she said.
The study also showed women were less likely to be having sex than men their own age. This was because they tended to be with older men, who have erection difficulties, or were more likely to be widowed or divorced from partners who have remarried younger women.
“So the pickings are particularly slim for women over the age of 40 compared with men,” said Dr King, a consultant for the drug company Pfizer, which funded the study.
She said it was most concerning to see less than 20 per cent of participants had spoken to a doctor about their problem, and just 6 per cent said they had been asked about their sexual health by a doctor in the last three years.
by Susan Floyd