The stereotype will suggest that forget getting better, there is no sex when one is old. Socially we are trained to go ‘aww, so cute’ when we see an old couple holding hands, but that sentiment shifts to ‘ew, disgusting’ if old people’s sex life comes up in discussion.

Well, there are several reasons why sex might actually get better with age. The biggest one, is of course experience. Gone are the irrational expectations from sex that people carry around in young adulthood. Also gone are, hopefully, the gendering of expectations from sex. Instead of the flawed, ‘women want this, men want that,’ conceptualisation, in old age one is more likely to understand sex as an act between two individuals.

A MIDUS study in the US identified sexual outlook as the best predictor of quality of sex in old age. People who expected that they will have good sex when they are old indeed ended up having good sex when they were old (the same participants were tracked over ten years.)

This is our handy recommendation of the day, dear reader. Be optimistic about the quality of sex you will have in the future. Look forward to it. Think about how you will make it even better.

And yes, there’s Misters to play its role.