What really DOES turn women on?
By
Maureen Rice
So is a successful and driven career woman more likely to have a high sex drive than her lesser-achieving sisters?
That was the conclusion drawn from research published this week which showed that women with high levels of testosterone are more likely to be risk-takers - and to have stronger sexual appetites.
It's just the latest piece in the jigsaw of the female libido, an enigma that now feeds a multi-million pound industry, with battalions of 'sex-perts' racing to uncover the magic formula that will deliver the gift of better sex for all.
Baffling: A female sex drive is a complicated, multi-layered thing. Understanding desire may turn out to be as tough as understanding women
But it's also a battleground, with experts at war with each other over whether 'sexy' for a woman begins in her body or her brain.
Over the past decade - ironically, since the launch of Viagra for men had the unexpected side-effect of making drug treatments for sex a hot new market for both genders - millions of pounds have been poured into researching the female libido.
It has uncovered some big surprises and some baffling dead-ends. While male desire tends to be straightforward, a woman's sex drive is a complicated, multi-layered thing.
That said, some women, just like some men, do seem to have a naturally higher sex drive than others. The research just published in the U.S. would seem to back that up, showing that this may well be linked to hormones, and to testosterone in particular.
Women with high levels of testosterone are much more likely to be ambitious and assertive and to choose traditionally male careers in business and finance. They're also likely to want more sex (low levels of testosterone have been shown to produce the opposite effect).
Sex researchers have started to talk about the importance of just doing it whether you feel like it or not, to maintain your desire levels
'Eureka!' shout the biologists. This shows that female desire, like male, is rooted in body chemistry.
Simplistic rubbish, respond the psychotherapists.
They believe that female desire is made up of physical, emotional, social and relationship factors. If you have poor body image, an uptight family background, bad early sexual experiences or a partner who is insensitive, lazy or just not that nice, then your sex drive very likely would take a nose-dive.
Who's right, then? Let's just consider the subject these experts are spending so much time and money to argue about, using real examples from a group of women who agreed to talk honestly about their sex lives.
Susan, is 48, slim and attractive and happily married. Well, quite happily.
'To be honest. I don't care if I never have sex again,' she admits. 'I only do it to keep Gary happy'.
Monica is 35 and also uninterested in sex with her long-time partner, but feels ' overwhelming feelings of desire' for a colleague at work with whom she is having an affair.
Lucy is 54 and has the opposite problem to Susan. 'Since my late 40s, I've had the wonderful experience of a late-blossoming sex drive, and I absolutely love it.'
Claire is 24 and in a new relationship with Tom: 'We spend days at a time in bed. It makes me feel very close to him, but I also like the feeling of sexual power it gives me.'
Helen, who is 32, isn't interested in sexual power. 'I've got a full-time job and two children under five. I don't even think about sex.'
It's clear from just this handful of examples that female sexual desire is as various and unique as women themselves.
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1209325/What-really-DOES-turn-women-on.html#ixzz1k8b8QKjC
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