The Sexual Peak of a Woman: Myth or Fact

With certain birthdays come anticipated milestones, whether it's finally getting your driver's license or being able to drink legally for the first time. For many women, age 32 is celebrated as the year we supposedly hit our sexual peak. For some women, putting a specific age on their sexual peak can be liberating and a highly anticipated event. For those who are already highly sexual, fear sets in that they might be a proper wife/parent/career woman one day, and then drop everything the next day to indulge in their new-found passion for pole dancing.

The real question is, why 32? Why would a woman be programmed to reach their sexual peak at an age where some women start to have problems conceiving? More importantly, could this magical age be a myth devised by some poor slob of a scientist who wanted to make his wife feel bad for not initiating sex more often? I jest.

Of course every woman is different, and 32 is most likely an average age, but as I venture into my 32^nd year, my interest as well as my sexuality, has peaked.

Since a 32 year old woman is slowly edging towards an advanced maternal age, maybe it's nature's way of making you conceive a baby before it is too late. On the other hand, a woman should finally be comfortable enough with both her body and sex itself to let go of her inhibitions by 32.

After much research, I didn't find a lot of official information online other than forums filled with other lusty 30-somethings who wanted to know why their boyfriends and husbands keep saying, "Woman, I'm not a machine!"

Finally, I came across a Woman's Health article and a quote from Dr. Pepper Schwartz, a professor of sociology at the University of Washington, Seattle. She said, "Sexual prime is a total myth...There is no physiological peak...no spike in hormones. No changes in the endocrine system. The whole notion is an artifact of the time"

Dr. Schwartz is a well-known expert on sexuality and relationships, but I'm not sold on her take.

It's well known that men hit their peak at 17-18 due to hormones. Perhaps the reason mother nature didn't bless us with a similar physiological peak was to keep us picky, for lack of a better word. Maybe we are designed to be choosier about out mate in order to pick out the best of the best, and to do so, we need to think with our heads without wild hormones getting in the way of our clarity.

I took stock of my own sexuality on my 32^nd birthday and realized that I had seen a pretty dramatic surge over the past year, but then again, this past calendar year was met with my husband returning home from Iraq, which might have something to do with my supposed "peak". It's not that I wanted sex more often, but upon my husband's return, our bond deepened, and I feel closer to him now than I had in the previous 8 years of our marriage.

Dr. Schwartz brought up hormones. When I read that, I realized I hit a true sexual peak back when I was pregnant with my first daughter. My libido was insatiable and I was fully aware that it was due to hormones. Ironic, isn't it; that a person can reach the height of sexual awareness while pregnant? It seems counterintuitive.

The peak I experienced during my pregnancy doesn't compare in the least to the heightened awareness I'm experiencing now. Back then, my hormones were raging out of control and it wasn't much fun because I was never satisfied. Now it's much more enjoyable because I feel in control, even if my husband who is seven years older than me uses that "machine" line more and more often.

Whether women experience an actual sexual peak in their 30s or not, I've come to the conclusion that Mother Nature is one cruel mama. Men and women are so mismatched, it's amazing that we manage to come together to procreate at all!