AUSTIN, Texas, July 8 (UPI) -- Women are more willing to engage in "reproduction expediting" sexual activities as their biological clocks tick louder, U.S. researchers suggest.
Psychology graduate students Judith Easton, Jaime Confer and Cari Goetz, and David Buss, a psychology professor at University of Texas at Austin, says reproduction expediting includes one-night stands and adventurous bedroom behavior.
The study involved 827 women divided into three groups: high fertility, ages 18-26; low fertility at ages 27-45; and menopausal, ages 46 and older. The respondents answered an online questionnaire about their sexual attitudes and behavior.
The study, published in the Personality and Individual Differences, found women ages 27-45 have a heightened sex drive in response to their diminishing fertility.
Compared with other women, women with low fertility were more likely to experience:
-- Frequent sexual fantasies.
-- Thoughts about sexual activities.
-- More intense sexual fantasies than younger women.
-- A more active sex life and willingness to have a one-night stand.
-- A willingness to have casual sex.
"Our results suggest there is nothing special about the 30s, but that instead these behaviors manifest in all women with declining fertility," Easton says in a statement. "It may be more difficult to conceive past the age of 35, but our research suggests women's psychology will continue to motivate them to try until menopause."
