Older Women Have a Lot More Sex Than People Think

A healthy sex life isn’t just reserved for the younger ladies.

A new study, published in the latest issue of the Annals of Family Medicine, shows that nearly six in 10 women over the age of 60 and in committed relationships are actively boning down. “People assume as women get older, they automatically become sexually inactive and sex is not as important to them, which isn’t necessarily the case,” Dr. Holly Thomas, author of the study, told Health Day.

More than 2,100 U.S. women between the ages of 28 to 84 were asked a series of questions pertaining to physical and mental health, medical problems, use of medication, relationship factors, sexual activity and sexual satisfaction. A majority of the women surveyed were in their 50s and 60s. The results showed that women in their 60s and 70s experienced sexual satisfaction comparable to women in their 30s and 40s.

The study also revealed that many women are sexually active if they are in a relationship. “It seems for a lot of women in this age group, whether they have a romantic partner is a big contributor to whether they’re sexually active,” said Thomas, but she did note that “we shouldn’t look at a woman who’s not married and 60, and assume she’s not sexually active.” Shoutout to all the Blanche Deverauxs out there in the world. Thomas also hopes that this information will help doctors to ask their older female patients about sexual activity. “A lot of women actually want to talk about sex with their doctor but may feel they can’t. But if physicians are aware that a lot of these women are sexually active and interested in maintaining a healthy sex life, they can bring it up,” she said.