All those averages also disguise another important fact about sexual fre*quency: In some ways, men and women are fundamentally incompatible. If you chart the lifelong sexual frequency of the average man, as Dr. did, you get a steep, sudden uphill climb during early adolescence, which peaks at

around age 16 or 17. For most males, this is the time of greatest sexual activity, usually averaging more than three orgasms a week. But as they pass into their twenties, men's sexual activity begins to gradually decline in frequency, and it continues to decline, gently and steadily, on into old age. In fact, Dr. wrote:

"There are no calculations in all of the material on human sexuality which give straighter slopes than the data showing the decline with age." That steady decline in sexual frequency holds for both married and unmarried men.

This typical male sexual history stands in dramatic contrast to what seems to be the natural pattem ofa woman's sexual life. If you look at the sexual history of single women, you don't find this dramatic early peak followed by a long decline. Instead, a woman's level of sexual activity tends to remain steady throughout her life, from adolescence on through to old age. Unmarried women, Dr. Kinsey found, averaged between 0.3 and 0.5 orgasms per week (a little less than once every two weeks) between adolescence and the age of 60.

On the other hand, not everybody has less sex as they get older. In fact, one recent study found that 15 percent of people over 65 said they were having more sex than ever before. If you're in this salty group, why should you care about what everybody else is doing (or not doing)?