Researchers Uncover How Age Shapes Sexual Desire In Men And Women

Men report higher sexual desire than women across most of adulthood, with men’s desire peaking around age 40, according to a large analysis of data from the Estonian Biobank. The findings, published in Scientific Reports, highlight how age, gender and relationship factors jointly shape sexual desire.

Sexual desire refers to the feeling of wanting sexual intimacy, activity or pleasure. It can involve thoughts, fantasies, physical sensations and emotional attraction, and is influenced by hormones, health, mood, relationship quality, culture and personal experiences.

Study Design And Participants

The Estonian Biobank is a national research resource that stores genetic, health and lifestyle information from volunteer participants. It includes approximately 20% of Estonia’s adult population, whose members are enrolled as gene donors.

For the study, researchers analyzed responses from 67,334 adults, around 70% of whom were women. Participants rated their sexual desire using two statements: agreement with “I have strong sexual urges” and disagreement with “I do not think much about sex.”

The survey also collected information on age, gender, education, marital status, sexual orientation, number of children, recent childbirth and occupation across ten job categories. Approximately 74% of participants lived with a partner, 5% had welcomed a child during the previous year and 95% identified as heterosexual.

Gender And Age Differences In Desire

Men reported substantially stronger sexual desire than women across nearly the entire adult lifespan. Study author Toivo Aavik noted that gender and age explained more variation in sexual desire than many previous smaller studies had suggested.

Women’s reported desire declined steadily from early adulthood, whereas men followed a different pattern. Male sexual desire increased into the late 30s and early 40s before gradually declining, rather than decreasing in parallel with testosterone levels throughout adulthood.

This discrepancy between desire and hormone trajectories suggests that social and relationship factors may help sustain men’s sexual desire during midlife. Despite the clear average differences, the researchers emphasized that there is considerable overlap between the sexes, with many women reporting higher desire than many men.

Orientation, Parenthood And Work

Sexual orientation was clearly associated with levels of desire. Bisexual and pansexual participants reported stronger sexual desire on average than heterosexual participants, while asexual individuals, by definition, reported lower levels of sexual desire.

People who had welcomed a child during the previous year reported slightly higher sexual desire, a finding that may partly reflect their younger average age. The data also revealed contrasting patterns between men and women as family size increased.

Men with more children tended to report higher sexual desire, whereas women with more children tended to report somewhat lower desire. The authors suggest that differences in caregiving responsibilities, stress and fatigue may contribute to this gender gap.

Occupation also appeared to influence desire in different ways for men and women. Men working in sales or skilled trades reported higher desire than male managers, whereas women in similar occupations reported lower desire than female senior officials. When relationship satisfaction was included in the analysis, many of these occupational effects became weaker.

Role Of Relationships And Satisfaction

Relationship status influenced the size of the gender gap. Differences in sexual desire between men and women were larger among individuals living with a partner than among single participants, suggesting that relationship dynamics may amplify underlying differences.

Higher relationship satisfaction was consistently associated with stronger sexual desire. This association was particularly pronounced among women, highlighting the importance of emotional closeness and relationship quality in women’s sexual well-being.

Overall, demographic and relationship-related variables explained nearly 30% of the variation in sexual desire. For population-level psychological research, this represents a relatively large proportion, underscoring the influence of everyday life circumstances on libido.

Limits, Biases And Next Steps

The authors acknowledged several limitations. All participants were from Estonia, a small European country, and cultural attitudes toward sexuality may differ from those in other regions. In addition, sexual desire was measured using only two self-report items embedded within a broader health survey.

Because the data were self-reported, social norms may have influenced how comfortable participants felt reporting their level of sexual desire, particularly women. The study was also correlational, meaning it can identify patterns but cannot determine cause-and-effect relationships.

Future research will aim to incorporate personality traits, mental health indicators and more detailed relationship processes into predictive models. Researchers are particularly interested in how accurately partners perceive one another’s sexual desire and how major life events influence libido over time.

The authors conclude that demographic factors provide a strong foundation for understanding sexual desire, but they do not explain everything. Individual psychology, cultural influences and changing relationship dynamics continue to play an important role in shaping human sexual desire and intimacy.

Article prepared by Victoria Caldwell.