Do men have higher sex drives or have they just been allowed to express their desire for sex more freely than women?

• According to this study biologically speaking, men do have higher sex drives because of the presence of testosterone. However, this study does not acknowledge the social and psychological factors that contribute to sexual desire.

• Generally speaking, it has been more acceptable for men to express their sexual desire for their sexual partners and even for strangers in comparison to women. This may mean that men have a higher sex drive just because they are simply used to having the authority to express this.

• Women may have higher sex drives than men, but this may be difficult to prove biologically.

• Women have generally been taught to be submissive to men and to keep their sexual desires to themselves to avoid tempting men. This has origins in the Bible or the Abrahamic religions where Eve tempted Adam and got kicked out of the Garden of Eden. This may result in pent up sexual desire or just not expressing it in the same way men do.

• Alternatively, both sexes may have fluctuations in sex drives, some may have zero to very litle sex drive, whereas others may be higher than average.

As a woman in her early 30s... let me tell you... this is false.

coughmymancan'tkeepupcough

Just sayin'.

I would like to do more research on this topic, but I do not believe that men naturally have higher sex drives, as much as it is culturally more acceptable for men to be sexual and to crave sexuality. Women are told to be modest and "save themselves for marriage", therefore aren't able to express their sexuality as openly as men.

‘Study after study shows that men's sex drives are not only stronger than women's, but much more straightforward’.

• Environment, partner and social context all affect female desire much more than it does men.
• Men think about sex more than women do. In a survey of studies comparing male and female sex drives, Roy Baumeister (a social psychologist at Florida State University), found that men reported more spontaneous sexual arousal and had more frequent sexual fantasies daily.
• In the same study, Baumeister concluded that men also actively crave sex more than women at all stages of relationships. This is also true of gay men compared to lesbian women.
• Baumeister found studies that show that women are more influenced by the attitudes of their peer group in their decisions about sex whereas men are more likely to base decision making on sexual desire alone.
• Edward O. Laumann, PhD is a professor of sociology at the University of Chicago and he found that about two-thirds of men say they masturbate compared to only about 40% of women.
• Laumann explains women’s lower sex drive compared to males through the world of sociobiology. He theorises that men have biological, subconscious incentive to have sex to pass along their genetic material whereas, by contrast, women may be hard-wired to choose partners more carefully because of the possible implications of pregnancy.
• Males prostitutes only account for roughly 20% of all prostitutes meaning that there are more of a market for men who are willing to pay for sex.
• J. Michael Bailey, a Northwestern University sex researcher, says that women have more varied and less directed sexual desire meaning what turns women on is much more nuanced than what turns men on.
• Esther Perel, a New York City psychotherapist says that she ‘hear[s] women say in [her] office that desire originates much more between the ears than between the legs’. She goes on to explain that women are more likely to desire a mental connection than men who see sex as the connection.
• Men react much more dramatically to both hormones and drugs. Testosterone has been linked to sex drive in both men and women but testosterone works much faster in men than women, says Glenn Braunstein. Furthermore, low sexual desire is more easily treated through medication in men eg. Viagra than in women for who a sex-drive increasing drug has proved more elusive.