Is the Sex Drive Hereditary?

Yesterday a new study was released which seems to indicate that the human sex drive is hereditary. Of course it could be argued that there is some sex drive to be found in everyone, or some of us wouldn't be here. From an evolutionary standpoint, it would eliminate certain lines. Perhaps it has!

Although most of us really would like to believe that our parents and grandparents never had sex, the truth is, we often know more than we wish we did.

I remember being in my teens when my dad's father was taken aside by his cardiologist and told that he had to knock off making love to my grandmother if he wanted to live longer. My grandfather was in his 80s. "Doc," he said, "I'd rather die happy."

We cringed when we heard that story, but we also had a grudging admiration for the old man (and woman!).

And although my parents are very modest, and not showy people, I've seen the gleam in Dad's eye when he looks at Mom. So, I assume he's following in his father's footsteps. But they were never overt about it. We never came home to find Mom and Dad under (or on top of) the kitchen table, and they never flirted wildly. But we knew.

Since Mom and Dad were always circumspect, it could be argued that the kids wouldn't have a strong sex drive, and yet we do (I am confident enough to speak for my brothers, too). So I would agree that sex drive may not always be patterned off what we see, but what we've inherited. Apparently scientists agree.

This indicates that there may, indeed, be couples that are sexually mismatched and there may be no amount of meds which will help that built-in, core function. Interestingly, this study comes out shortly after the announcement that Viagra sales have dropped significantly. It's as if men thought they'd try it to make up a supposed deficit, and then decided it simply wasn't worth bothering with.

It would be very interesting to do a study on the sex drives of adults who were adopted as babies and raised completely apart from their biological families.