Sexual Desires in Middle Aged Women Don't Wane

Sexually active middle-aged women have a high likelihood to stay sexually active even as they age, according to new research published out of JAMA Internal Medicine.

The study, which followed 605 women over eight years, observed that women who rated sex as important were three time as likely to remain sexually active even into older age, compared with those who did think of sex as important.

According to the researchers, it is often a common belief that as women age, they lose interest in having sex; and in some ways, this isn't wrong. According to womenshealth.gov, menopausal and post-menopausal women often experience markedly decreased sex drive due to a drop in hormones. Other side-effects of menopause can leave vaginal sex feeling uncomfortable for women, making it undesirable.

Still, researchers argue that women don't always need to have vaginal sex to remain sexually active, and in-fact, a large majority of aging middle-aged women still expressed a strong desire to have sex.

The study, which only followed women between 40 and 65 years of age from 2005 to 2013 found that after 4 years, two thirds of the women remained sexually active and had a desire to continue having sexual integrations. It is important to note that at this point, nearly all women had gone through menopause. After eight years, 85 percent of that initial two-thirds remained active, showing that the large majority of the aging women who desired to remain active did so.

Interestingly, the data also indicated that the quality of sex these women were having did not seem to matter. By the eighth year, heath factors that influence the potential for physical enjoyment in sex had dropped considerably among nearly all the women observed. This would imply that after a certain point, the intimacy of sexual intercourse may be more important to women than the physical act.

Knowing these things may put some things in perspective for healthcare providers. Flibanserin, a drug intended to help maintain sexual desire among women is currently in a long-fought struggle to get approval by the Food and Drug Administration, suggesting that there is an untapped market of women who wish to continue having sex even if their physical desire is lacking.

The study was published in JAMA Internal Medicine on February 10.