A new study contradicts long-held beliefs that male sexual desire declines in their twenties, highlighting the influence of individual variants over pure biology statistics.
Men concerned about losing their sexual spark after youth needn’t worry, with new research suggesting male desire peaks at 40.
In the past, sexual desire has mostly been measured in relation to hormone levels.
Testosterone, the hormone responsible for fuelling men’s sex drives, begins to decline by about 1 percent a year after the age of 30, according to the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS). This has led to the commonly held belief that men are at their most lustful in their 20s.
However, a team of researchers from the University of Tartu in Estonia have found the opposite to be true.
By analysing data from more than 67,000 adults aged 20 to 84, they discovered that men's libidos continued to increase until their early 40s, beginning a gradual decline in the years after.
“Hormones matter - but they are not the whole story, and their relative importance shifts across the life course,” Toivo Aavik, professor at the University of Tartu and co-author of the study, told Euronews Health.
“Our data argues that desire is sustained longer than a pure hormonal account predicts, and that social/relational factors explain a lot of variance.”
The study, published in the journalScientific Reports, raises important questions about the complexities of human desire beyond biology; how it is influenced by a swirl of psychological and environmental factors that determine our overall life satisfaction.
“Desire is not a fringe curiosity. It is central to how people experience sex, form sexual relationships, and evaluate their intimate lives. Practically speaking, it’s also hugely important for relationship health - and of course for entire health,” Aavik said.
The study also found that certain professions were linked to a higher sexual appetite, including machine operators, senior managers, drivers and the military. On the flip side, office workers and those in customer service roles reported a lower sex drive.
Other contributors included sexuality. Bisexuals reported higher levels of desire, while people in happy, stable relationships showed more minor increases.
The complexities of female desire
In contrast to its findings on men, the study reported female desire to peak between the ages of 20 and 30, dropping significantly after the age of 50.
This aligns with previous research on the effects of estrogen declining in women during and after menopause. As documented by John Hopkins Medicine, women reported a 23 percent decline in their sexual activity between their fifties and seventies.
However, this doesn’t account for the societal influences, such as childcare and stigma, that impact women’s sexual desire - and openness to express it.
“In many societies, men’s sexual arousal is more visibly expressed and socially legitimate to report; women may under-report desire in anonymous surveys for a mix of reasons - internalised norms, uncertainty about what counts as “desire”, or concern about stigma,” said Aavik.
“At the same time, female sexual experience can be more internally complex. Women may experience physiological arousal without labelling it as “desire” in the same moment, or they may experience desire that is more contextually cued,” he added.
For this reason, Aavik said it’s important to view his findings as averages not universals, with human desire shaped by individual variants in both genders. For example, many women in the survey reported high desire and many men reported low desire, while after having children, libido was found to decrease for women and increase for men.
“Social norms, measurement differences, and the often internal, context-dependent nature of women’s sexual desire all play into why survey averages show sex differences,” Aavik said.
