In long-term relationships it can become a struggle to maintain sexual desire. Sexual desire, while including the physical component of arousal, is the motivation to seek out sexual activity and pleasure with a partner. Sexual desire tends to be at its highest at the beginning of a relationship but decreases over time (Impett, Strachman, Finkel, & Gable, 2008). Without a certain level of sexual desire couples also find a decrease of satisfaction in their relationship, making the relationship difficult to maintain (Ferreria, Narciso, & Novo, 2012). Reasons for decreases in sexual desire range from general to gender specific. While a certain amount of decrease in sexual desire and satisfaction is inevitable for most couples over long-term
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Due to the nature of the surveys, the participants for each study may have been more liberal and open about their sexuality than many who would not have volunteered to participate. Therefore, the findings of each study may not represent the general population. Furthermore, as both studies done by Murray and Milhausen (2012a, 2012b) focused on the sexuality fairly young participants (18 - 29 years), the majority of which came from a southwestern Ontario university campus. The findings may be excluding any information due to a lack of desire that comes with growing older; greater fatigue, lowered hormone levels, and various other factors may have more significant effects on older demographics. While each study had its limitations, the results found in each study generally supported those found in the others. For example, Impett, Strachman, Finkel, & Gable’s (2008) findings that relational aspects affect women’s sexual desire more than men’s were supported by Murray and Milhausen’s (2012b) findings that state that the length of a relationship had an affect of women’s sexual desire while only sexual satisfaction affected men’s. Carvalheira, Træen, & Štulhofer’s (2014) study was able to use a large sample population due to its survey being done online. This allowed them to look at men with a large range of ages from several different countries. The rest of the studies, however, were unable to reach as large of sample sizes, resulting in reduced variety of
Due to the nature of the surveys, the participants for each study may have been more liberal and open about their sexuality than many who would not have volunteered to participate. Therefore, the findings of each study may not represent the general population. Furthermore, as both studies done by Murray and Milhausen (2012a, 2012b) focused on the sexuality fairly young participants (18 - 29 years), the majority of which came from a southwestern Ontario university campus. The findings may be excluding any information due to a lack of desire that comes with growing older; greater fatigue, lowered hormone levels, and various other factors may have more significant effects on older demographics. While each study had its limitations, the results found in each study generally supported those found in the others. For example, Impett, Strachman, Finkel, & Gable’s (2008) findings that relational aspects affect women’s sexual desire more than men’s were supported by Murray and Milhausen’s (2012b) findings that state that the length of a relationship had an affect of women’s sexual desire while only sexual satisfaction affected men’s. Carvalheira, Træen, & Štulhofer’s (2014) study was able to use a large sample population due to its survey being done online. This allowed them to look at men with a large range of ages from several different countries. The rest of the studies, however, were unable to reach as large of sample sizes, resulting in reduced variety of