Do We Really Have “Sexual Peaks”?

Feeling frisky, confident, and ready for a roll in the hay? You might just be hitting a sexual peak—a common term for a period of sexual maturity, competence, and desire. What’s the deal with these spikes? Are they even real? Read on for info on why this biological phenomenon is actually a myth, and how it affects how we think about gender and sexuality.

Peaks and Valleys—Why It Matters

 

Conventional wisdom (and plenty of women’s magazines) claims that men reach their sexual peaks as young teenage whippersnappers (18, to be exact), while late-blooming ladies don’t hit this milestone until their 30s. It’s easy to see why this myth has stuck around—early sexpert Alfred Kinsey himself proposed the theory on sexual peaks in his groundbreaking work “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female,” published way back in 1953. Since Kinsey first reported on male and female sexuality, the idea that men and women mature and think about sex differently has remained the prevailing theory about sexual peaks.

But as shocking as Kinsey’s work was at the time, it didn’t encompass much of what we now understand about doin’ the deed. If Kinsey were looking at hormonal levels alone, he’d be largely correct about sexual peaks. In men, testosterone levels reach their apex around age 18, while women’s estrogen (and fertility) hits a high-water mark during the mid- to late-20s. This hot-and-heavy stage of sexual maturity is known as the genital prime, because it’s when the body responds most quickly to arousal (it also explains all those stereotypes about high school boys…).
But a person’s genital or hormonal peak isn’t the same as his or her sexual prime. In fact, it’s difficult (if not impossible) to predict or claim that a certain age comprises a sexual peak, because it’s different for every adult. Being at the top of one’s sexual game is much more complicated than the number of sperm in the tank or the ease with which one can get pregnant—sex is also psychological. Mental factors like body confidence, personal sexuality, feelings of intimacy and trust with a partner, libido, and knowledge of sexual preferences take time and experience to develop.

 

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