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More details:Women's sexuality changes little with age
October 11, 2002
BY JIM RITTER HEALTH REPORTER
While more men become impotent as they age, University of Chicago researchers have found remarkably little change in women's sexuality as they grow older.
Depression and serious medical conditions have more negative effect on women's sexual function than aging, researchers found in a survey of 27,500 men and women age 40 to 80 in 30 countries.
By contrast, impotence becomes increasingly common as men age. In the United States, the impotence rate jumped from 11 percent in men 40-49 to 18 percent in men 50-59. By age 80, about 40 percent of men are impotent.
The different effect aging has on men and women "has the potential for creating problems," said sociologist Edward Laumann, who directed the study being reported at a conference in Vancouver of the International Society for Study of Women's Sexual Health.
Many men have been successfully treated for impotence with Viagra and other drugs, and drug companies are researching treatments for female sexual problems. But Laumann doubts sexual dysfunction in women can be treated with a pill because the root causes usually are social and psychological.
The study found that among all women, 31 percent lacked interest in sex, 22 percent were unable to have orgasms, 21 percent said sex wasn't pleasurable, 20 percent had trouble lubricating and 14 percent experienced pain during sex.
"The effect of age is quite modest, except for lubrication," Laumann said.
Compared with women 40-49, women aged 50-64 were 8 percent more likely to have lubrication problems, but only 4 percent more likely to lack interest in sex or be unable to have orgasm. The older women also were 3 percent more likely to find sex isn't pleasurable and 1percent more likely to experience pain during sex.
Depression had a bigger impact than aging: Compared with other women, depressed women were 10 percent more likely to lack interest in sex and 9 percent more likely to be unable to have orgasms. Women who reported other serious medical conditions were 7 percent more likely to lack interest in sex.
Other factors that made women more likely to lack interest in sex were being in poor or fair health (5 percent more likely) and low physical activity (3 percent more likely).
Women who have had hysterectomies were 3 percent more likely to have lubrication difficulties. But having high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease had little or no negative impact on sexual function.
Results generally didn't vary much from country to country.
The study was funded by Pfizer Inc., which makes Viagra.
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