Research shows that sexually active older people live longer and stay healthier than their celibate counterparts.

As they get older, some people find that the combination of feeling more at ease with themselves and having more time and less inhibitions means that sex automatically gets better with age. Others have more difficulty adjusting to physical changes or find that getting older means losing confidence, probably because of negative attitudes towards older people being sexual.

One of the reasons that young people can't imagine an older person being interested in sex is the belief that our sex drive politely disappears as we get older. Reality is a bit more complicated than that – many of us never lose our sexual desire, and the changes in hormone levels can actually increase sex drive in women.

Interestingly, research shows that men and women tend to have different views on any reduction in the desire for sex. Most men see their difficulties as physical in nature, something which can be cured by a tablet, whereas women are more likely to point to the quality of their relationship, and other emotional factors as the reason they have gone off sex.