From the article: A recent online survey explored how sexual desire changes with age and found that it is the highest between 30 and 40 in both men and women. It was noticeably lower only in respondents over 60 years of age. Men reported higher levels of sexual desire than women on average. The study was published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior.

Sexual desire is the experience of sexual thoughts, fantasies, and the motivation to engage in sexual activities. It is positively associated with well-being. Previous studies have suggested that sexual desire decreases with age, but assumptions about the specific age when sexual desire is highest differ. Studies have also shown substantial individual variability in the level of sexual desire.

Due to this, the study of factors predicting sexual desire has attracted a lot of research interest. Sexual desire can be dyadic (desire for sexual activity with a partner) or solitary (desire for solitary sexual activity such a masturbation).

For their study, Larissa L. Wierczorek from the University of Hamburg and her colleagues analyzed a part of the data from an online survey of social attitudes and personality in order to examine the relationship between sexual desire, age, masculinity, and attractiveness. The study sample consisted of 8,150 participants between 15 and 80 years of age, but predominantly very young, who were recruited via a number of social media platforms in the eleven-year period between 2007 and 2018.

Participants were predominantly females (67.88%) and 72.17% identified as heterosexual. Data analyzed in this study included self-assessments of two types of dyadic sexual desire – towards one’s partner, towards an “attractive person” and towards themselves (Sexual Desire Inventory-2, SDI-2) as well as an overall assessment of sexual desire and self-ratings of own masculinity, attractiveness and health (participants rated how masculine/attractive/healthy they believe they are on a 7-point scale).