It has long been thought that a woman's libido declines with age, but new research suggests this may not be the case.
A study has found that most women who are sexually active in middle age continue to have sex as they grow old.
This applies even if they are diagnosed with sexual dysfunction, the research revealed.
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Happy: Most women who are sexually active in middle age continue to have sex as they grow old, a study has found
‘There's this popular public perception that as women age, sex becomes unimportant, and that women just stop having sex as they get older,’ lead author Dr Holly Thomas said.
‘From our study, it looks like most women continue to have sex during midlife.’
Dr Thomas, from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre, added: ‘It may be detrimental to label a woman as sexually dysfunctional.’
Psychologists and doctors have been debating the value of diagnosing women with sexual dysfunction since the 1998 release of the erectile dysfunction pill Viagra set off a search for a female version of the drug.
Doctors use a test called the Female Sexual Function Index to diagnose women's sexual problems.
The index includes 19 questions about arousal, orgasm, vaginal lubrication and pain during intercourse.
In the current study, 354 middle aged and older Pittsburgh women who reported being sexually active when they first took the test took it again four years later.
More than 85 per cent of the women reported that they remained sexually active when they took the test the second time, between the ages of 48 and 73.
Nevertheless, those women generally scored low on the sexual function index, with an average score of 22.3 - below 26.55 is considered sexually dysfunctional.
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Close: Slim women are also more likely to remain active between the sheets in old age
The authors were surprised to find that sexual function, as measured by the index, failed to predict whether the women continued to have sex.
They theorised that the test ‘may be labelling women as dysfunctional when women don't have a problem,’ Dr Thomas said.
The index's ‘focus on intercourse may not accurately reflect what constitutes satisfying sex in this population, yielding falsely low scores,’ she and her colleagues write.
Race, weight, relationship status and how important women deemed sex - rather than their scores on the sexual function index - were the most important predictors of sexual activity, according to findings published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Women who rated sex as important were three times as likely to remain sexually active as women who rated it as unimportant, Dr Thomas said.
White women were most likely to stay sexually active, the researchers found.
So were thinner women. ‘Whether that has to do with health or body image, we don't know,’ Dr Thomas said.
‘We've seen from other research that a healthy sex life is a predictor of longevity,’ Dr Thomas said. ‘So understanding sex might have broader implications for overall health.’
Dr Camelia Davtyan, director of women’s health at the UCLA Comprehensive Health Programme, told Reuters Health the results resonated with her clinical experience.
‘A lot of our patients continue to have sex even if they have low libido or vaginal dryness,’ she said. ‘It's just that they need help.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2556816/Menopause-DOESNT-ruin-sex-life-Study-finds-women-active-sheets-50s-continue-pensioners.html#ixzz2t2kLGZm7
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