Men at 50 have better sex lives! Asian News International
London, February 21, 2006
What do men in their 50s have in common with men in their 20s? Well, according to a new survey, it happens to be their sex lives, for it found that when it comes to levels of sexual satisfaction, men in their fifties recorded similar levels to 20-29 year-olds.
The survey, by a team of experts from Norway and the USA, was conducted on 1,185 men aged between 20 and 79, who were asked about various aspects of their sex life, including drive, erections and ejaculation.
The researchers found that most men in their 50s seemed to have higher levels of satisfaction than men in their 30s and 40s.
The survey found that while men in their twenties recorded an average overall satisfaction level of 2.79, the second highest level was among fifty-somethings who recorded an average of 2.77. Men in their 30s only reached 2.55 and men in their forties averaged 2.72.
Professor Sophie D Fossa from the Rikshospitalet-Radiumhospitalet Trust in Oslo, who carried out the research with colleagues from the University of Oslo, the University of Bergen and Harvard Medical School in the USA, said that though men do experience more problems and less sexual function as they get older, it doesn't mean that they are less satisfied with their sex lives as a result.
"The survey was carried out using a questionnaire first developed and tested in America in 1995. The results showed a very strong correlation between men getting older and reduced sexual functioning, but not between age and sexual satisfaction. Our results show that although men experience more problems and less sexual function as they get older, it doesn't necessarily follow that they are less satisfied with their sex lives as a result," she said.
However when it came to sexual function, the scores moved steadily downwards as the respondents got older, indicating lower levels of function and more problems. The average score for sexual drive was 2.19 out of four, ranging from 2.79 for men in the twenties to 1.54 for men in their seventies.
Satisfaction with erections also averaged 2.83, dropping sharply once men reached their fifties. While men in their twenties scored 3.63, men in their fifties 3.03, and men in their seventies scored 1.60.
Ejaculation averaged 3.28 and showed a more measured decline with age, falling more sharply for men in their sixties and seventies. Men in their twenties averaged 3.85 while men in their seventies averaged 2.32.
"Age accounted for a 22 per cent variance in sexual drive, a 33 per cent variance in erection issues and a 23 per cent variance in ejaculation issues. But age only accounted for a variance of three per cent in overall satisfaction," she added.
The survey is published in the February issue of BJU International.