“We’ve all seen the seductive 40- or 50-something divorcee portrayed in the movies who attracts men like honey draws flies. Think of Susan Sarandon’s character in the film 'Bull Durham.' However, this appears to be the exception rather than the rule and maybe that is part of these characters’ allure,” said Vanderbilt University assistant professor of sociology Laura Carpenter, who led the study.

Carpenter, with Columbia University professor Constance Nathanson and John Hopkins University professor emeritus Young J. Kim, found that a combination of factors, including older women being viewed by both men, and the women themselves, as less attractive as they age; conservative beliefs about premarital sex; older men/younger women pairings and higher male mortality rates, add up to women having fewer, often no, sexual partners, particularly after about age 50.

Interestingly, having some or more college education seems to both increase women’s chances of having no sexual partners and having multiple sexual partners.

The researchers contribute this contradictory finding to heterosexual men’s preference of partners with similar or lower educational attainment, which would result in a smaller pool of partners for women with higher levels of education. However, better-educated women may also enjoy more opportunities to meet potential partners than less well-educated women.

The study, “Sex After 40? Gender, ageism and sexual partnering in midlife,” looks at about 1,200 heterosexual men and women age 40 to 59. Of the group, a little over 56 percent were women and about 43 percent were men and they are representative of the United States population overall in terms of racial and ethnic background, socioeconomic status and religion. The 1,200, who are aged 53 to 72 today, responded to the 1992 National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS), a project that gathered detailed information about sexuality not available elsewhere.

The National Opinion Research Center conducted the survey and conducted more than 3,400 in-person interviews with respondents randomly drawn from a national sample of U.S. households. The survey’s response rate was nearly 80 percent. Only English-speaking adults aged 18 to 59 were eligible to participate in the NHSLS.

While the outlook may seem grim for those who wish to have an active sexual life in middle age, the researchers believe that change is on the horizon as younger Baby Boomers age and Generation X enters middle age.

“We will probably see an increase in mass media and other market-driven institutions catering to this sizable group so new cultural images of middle-aged and older women and men may emerge, which could have an impact on younger generations’ views on sexual desire and activity in later life – particularly if their parents and grandparents continue to see sexuality as an important part of their lives,” Carpenter said.

“Also, Baby Boomers and Generation X typically have more liberal sexual attitudes and behaviors – so we may see a decline in the number of women, and men, who do not seek sexual partners because of conservative views regarding sex outside of marriage,” she said.

The study suggests that the 2003 box office success of "Something’s Gotta Give," a romantic comedy about the sexual relationship between a woman in her late 50s, played by Diane Keaton, and a man in his early 60s, played by Jack Nicholson, is a sign that change may already be underway.