The Actual Age Women Reach Their Sexual Peak
We've been misled.
Svitlana Sokolova / Shutterstock All through my 20s, I was assured by older friends and doctors that the greatest sex of my life was still years away.
According to my gynecologist, whom I've had since I was 22, whatever bad sex I was having in my 20s would be nothing but a distant memory and something I could laugh at once I hit my 30s, because then, and only then, would I finally reach my sexual peak.
Although my sex life in my 20s wasn't awful, I did sincerely hope that it would get better with age, just as everyone said it would. And I can confirm that by the time I was 31, I was definitely having better sex than I had just a few years before.
Of course, I equated that to getting closer to my sexual peak, which, for a long time, was assumed to be about 35 for women.
However, a study by sex toy brand LoveHoney has found that maybe what we thought to be true about sexual peaks isn't so true after all. In fact, their findings are pretty opposite from what we've also been told.
When do women peak sexually?
The massive survey of 1,000 adults, between the ages of 18 and 65, asked them to divulge at what moments in their lives were they having the "best" sex.
What the study found was that women were having the best sex at 26, as opposed to the long-held belief of 35, and men were having the best sex at 32, as opposed to the age of 18 that doctors had instilled in our brains.
The study also found that when someone lost their virginity also played a part in how long it took for them to be sexually satisfied.
When is the average age men and women lose their virginity?
On average, women lost their virginity at 16, taking it 10 years before they finally had the best sex of their lives, so they claimed, and men averaged a virginity loss age of 17, which meant they had to wait 15 years before they started having action that actually made their toes curl.
According to sex and relationship expert, Tracey Cox, it makes sense that it would take so long for people to finally be able to say they're having the "best" sex, because, "Like most things, sex gets better the more you do it and the more practiced you are at it. It takes time to learn how to control their orgasms and to fathom the complex female sexual system."
When it came to the other results of the study, Cox said she wasn't surprised that women actually reach their sexual peak before men, because, contrary to earlier beliefs, there’s no way that it would take women that much longer than men to "master their sexual responses."
Why is it surprising that women sexually peak in their 20s?
As someone who writes about sex, I personally feel that the reason ages are changing for sexual peaks, especially for women, is because attitudes toward sex are changing.
When my mother overhears the way my friends and I talk about sex, without reservation, and with such openness and a full grasp on sex education, it makes her blush. Back in her day, even during and after the sexual revolution, women still were not to where they are now in how they view not just sex as a whole, but their own sexuality.
In the 1970s, only 1% of women had ever used a vibrator compared to more than half (53%) the female population using them now.
While I still stand by the fact that my great sex days didn't roll around until my early 30s, I am happy that women in their mid-20s are reaching their sexual peak earlier than originally thought.
If the average woman is losing their virginity at 16, having to wait almost 20 years for great sex seems more than unfair; it seems almost cruel.
As for men, though, I'm not sure how to comment. Every guy I've ever met seemed to have hit their sexual peak after the very first time they had an orgasm, and kept going strong from there.
But that's just one woman's observation.
Amanda Chatel is a lifestyle writer with a focus on sex, relationships, sexual health, women's reproductive rights, and mental health. She has bylines at Harper's Bazaar, The Atlantic, Forbes, Livingly, Mic, The Bolde, Huffington Post, and others. Follow her on Twitter or Facebook for more.