Middle-aged men winners in the bedroom

The cliche of the average man entering middle age is one in which he spends his weekends in leather trousers mounting a Harley-Davidson as a substitute for a libido in fast decline.

But the reality is quite the opposite.

Men in their 50s are more satisfied with their love lives than those who are one or two decades younger, despite their decline in sexual performance, a medical study has found.

According to research conducted by experts at the University of Oslo, the University of Bergen and Harvard Medical School, middle-aged men had similar levels of contentment to those who are physiologically in their sexual prime, aged between 20 and 29.

The average 50-year-old achieves sexual contentment despite increased problems with sexual functions such as attaining, and sustaining, an erection.

Researchers in the US and Norway interviewed 1185 men aged from 20 to 79.

"Our results show that although men experience more problems and less sexual function as they get older, it doesn't necessarily follow that they are less satisfied with their sex lives as a result," said Professor Sophie Fossa, who helped conduct the research. The findings were published in BJU International, the British Journal of Urology.

Men were asked to rate "sexual satisfaction" levels from zero to four, with four being the most contentment.

Although the results found a strong relationship between a man's advancing age, his declining sex drive and his ability to have an erection, the survey found it was different when it came to men's attitudes to bedroom antics.

Men in their 50s recorded an average satisfaction level of 2.77, second only to their 20-something counterparts, who averaged 2.79.

Men in their 30s only reached 2.55, and men in their 40s were found to be growing happier as they aged, with a satisfaction level of 2.72.

Rowan Pelling, former editor of the Erotic Review, said she was not at all surprised by the results and believed men became more "romantic" in their middle life.

She said she had noticed the difference in attitude among older men when editing the Erotic Review, on reading material from older male contributors.

"Many of the contributors were in their 50s and 60s and it was as if they had only discovered sex and love when they hit their late 40s.
"There is such a frantic rush to have sex as a form of relief in men's 20s and 30s that they miss out on the more developed emotionally eroticism.

"They are not just trigger happy because they have slowed down and discovered what romance is about.

"Also, once you have accepted your body does not always function as you would want, it's a matter of being more realistic and not aggressively 'conquering' women," she said.

Women, however, "begin to think about going to the Gambia or shagging the gardener at that age", she observed.

But as men hit the end of their 50s, sexual satisfaction levels plummet to 2.46 for those in their 60s and 2.14 a decade later.

- INDEPENDENT