Feeling old may dampen your sex life

Feeling old? You may be less likely satisfied with your sex life, researchers say.The study showed that the closer people felt to their chronological age, the lower was the quality of their sex life.

"Feeling younger had a huge impact on how people felt about the quality of their sex life and how interested they were in having sex," said Steven Mock, Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.

For the study, published in the Journal of Sex Research, the team looked at the attitude of a group of 1,170 adults towards sex and ageing. The participants were in their mid-40s to their mid-70s over a 10-year period.

Regression analyses were used to investigate the effects of subjective age and attitudes about aging on three measures of sexuality: frequency of sex, perceived quality of sexual activity, and interest in sexual activity, over 10 years.

The older the participants felt, the less was their positivity towards ageing, and the less they rated sexual activity as enjoyable over time.

Subjective age and beliefs about ageing, though, did not have an impact on frequency of sex.

"While feeling younger didn't have an impact on how much sex people were having, it was quite clear that feeling older does impact the quality of the sex you're having," added Amy Estill from Waterloo University.