他她話題:女人年過四十更"性福"

Women grow increasingly satisfied with their sex lives after they turn 40, a new study suggests.

一項新研究表明，女人年過四十以後對性生活越來越滿意。

For some, that heightened satisfaction comes from having great sex; for others, it stems from the fact that while their sexual activity has decreased, so has their desire, the survey showed.

研究顯示，對某些人而言，“性福感”來自美妙的性生活，而對其他人來說，“性福感”增加是因爲她們的性慾隨着性生活的減少而減少。

The researchers surveyed a group of women between ages 40 and 100, with a median age of 67. Half of the responders said they were sexually active, and most of those women said they were able to become aroused, maintain lubrication and achieve orgasm during sex, even after the age of 80.

研究人員調查了年齡在40歲至100歲之間的一組女性，她們的平均年齡爲67歲。半數應答者稱她們依然有性生活，其中大多數女性稱自己的性慾能夠被激發，並能在性生活中保持陰道溼潤，達到高潮，甚至過了80歲也能做到。

Moreover, among sexually active women, those who were below age 55 or above 80 were the most likely to report satisfaction with their ability to achieve orgasms.

而且，那些性活躍的女性當中，年齡在55歲以下或80歲以上的女性最有可能對自己達到性高潮的能力感到滿意。

"I was surprised by how many people were completely satisfied over the age of 80," said study researcher Elizabeth Barrett-Connor. The number of women who weren't sexually active but still expressed satisfaction surprised her as well. "I think there's a whole range of reasons people might be sexually satisfied," she said.

該研究的研究人員伊麗莎白•巴雷特-康納說：“這麼多人在過了80歲之後還很‘性福’，這讓我很驚訝。”那些過了性活躍期但依然表示“性福”的女性人數之多也讓她感到吃驚。“我認爲有一系列可能導致人們‘性福’的原因。”

The study was the first of its size to focus exclusively on the sex lives of healthy women, a shift from previous efforts that had centered on studying women with sexual dysfunction, or tested the effects of hormone therapy on women's sex lives, Barrett-Connor said.

巴雷特-康納說，這是首個專門關注健康女性性生活的大規模研究，不同於以往將研究重點放在性功能障礙的女性身上，或測試激素治療對女性性生活影響的研究。

The researchers mailed a questionnaire to 1,303 women who had participated in the Rancho Bernardo Study, a survey of people in a suburban California community that has been ongoing since 1972. Of these women, 806 responded to questions about sex, "a very high participation rate for a study that asks very personal questions," Barrett-Connor said. "We have been studying this population for many years, and they trust us."

研究人員向1303位參與蘭喬伯納多研究的女性郵寄了調查問卷，被調查人羣居住在加州市郊的一個社區中，該社區從1972年開始存在至今。這些女性中，有806人對有關性的問題做了答覆。巴雷特-康納說：“這一調查問的是非常私人的問題，然而參與率卻很高。我們研究這一人羣已有多年，所以她們信任我們。”

More than half of all women surveyed said they were very or moderately satisfied with their sex life. The percentage of women who described themselves as sexually satisfied increased with age. Almost half of the women over age 80 said they were always or almost always sexually satisfied.

超過半數的被調查女性稱，她們對自己的性生活“十分滿意”或“比較滿意”。認爲自己“性福”的女性比例隨着年齡的增長而增加。80歲以上的女性有近半數稱自己總是或幾乎總是感到“性福”。

It may be that those who are not sexually active "have achieved sexual satisfaction through touching, caressing, or other intimacies that have developed over the course of a long relationship," according to the study.

該研究稱，這可能是因爲那些不再性活躍的女性“通過觸摸、愛撫或長期感情關係中產生的其他親密行爲來獲得性滿足”。