ABSTRACT
Objective: To study the sexual desire and activity of men and women aged 30-80 years. Methodology: A representative sample was surveyed and correlated with their social, individual and interpersonal characteristics. A total of 100 subjects were recruited. Observations: The study showed that sexual desire declined with advancing age with overall men reporting more frequent and stronger sexual desire compared to women. For both men and women, sexual activity in older participants was mostly an issue of denial or disagreement of the other partner. There were additional social and personality determinants of lack of sexual desire and sexual inactivity, which included illness, lack of privacy, erectile dysfunction, spiritual reasons and menopause. Conclusions: Sexual history should be a routine part of history taking and should be undertaken during assessment of the patient.