Posted by By Yinka Shokunbi, Senior Correspondent, Lagos on
An amazing new report of a study on sexual behaviour carried out in Paris France, has revealed that women over 50 are becoming more sexually active and have also reported having had more sexual partners in their lifetime.
An amazing new report of a study on sexual behaviour carried out in Paris France, has revealed that women over 50 are becoming more sexually active and have also reported having had more sexual partners in their lifetime.
According to the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and INED (National Institute for Demographic Studies), the surveyed women have similarly reported having intercourse 7.3 times per month on average, compared to 5.3 times 15 years ago.
The institutes surveyed more than 12,300 women and men age 18 and 69 between September 2005 and March 2006 on their sexuality, the third major study of French sexual behaviour following the 1970 and 1992 reports.
Commenting on the findings, Nathalie Bajos, a lead researcher on the survey, said "Women's sexuality has become more diverse," adding that the findings reflect the overall changes in the status of women.
The report also revealed that teenage girls in France are having sex as early as boys and more of them are experimenting with homosexuality.
According to the report, girls become sexually active in Paris by the average age of 17.6, compared to 17.2 years for boys.
Similarly, the researchers reported in their findings that in the last 50 years, men have become sexually active a year earlier while women have gained three years.
There is also a "significant increase" in the number of women age 18 to 69 who report that they have had sex with another woman: four per cent in the latest survey, up from 2.6 per cent in 1992.
The number of men who reportedly tried homosexuality remained stable at 4.1 per cent.
The sexual behaviour survey noted that in the recent years too, more than a third of French youths aged 18 to 24 have logged on to dating sites on the Internet.
In the course of Internet dating, the survey pointed out, one out of every 10 men between the ages of 20 and 24 has had sex with a partner met through the Internet compared to six per cent of women.
Women said they have had more sexual partners compared to earlier surveys, with the number reaching 4.4 in 2006, while men have reported having sex with 11.6 partners in their lifetime, a figure that has been holding steady since 1970.
The researchers however cautioned that from their findings, women have a tendency not to include one-night stands on their list of sexual partners.