It’s one of the great debates that has raged across time and cultures — who has the stronger sex drive? A new study says men do, but not by much. According to the study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, men reported having roughly 50 percent stronger sexual desire than women, while women reported having nearly twice as much interest in romance as men. This could mean that women are more easily aroused than men, or it could mean that men simply have a lower threshold for sexual arousal.

The Facts
While both men and women have a sex drive, scientists seem to agree that, in general, men’s sex drives are stronger than women’s. One study found that while 57% of men reported having more than one partner per year, only 19% of women said they did. Still, since it isn’t exactly clear why men have a stronger sex drive—and there is obviously plenty of variation among individuals—we can’t say definitively that they do. Let us know what you think. Leave a comment below: Do you think men or women have a stronger sex drive? Or is it different for everyone?

How Does Male Sexuality Work?
Before we dive into a discussion about who has a stronger sex drive, let’s take a look at how male sexuality works. The process of arousal begins with physiological changes in a man’s body. When you think about having sex, your brain releases hormones that start to make physiological changes. For instance, vasopressin is released and helps regulate sexual behavior; oxytocin makes people feel relaxed; testosterone promotes masculine characteristics like body hair and facial hair growth; prolactin helps increase dopamine levels, which are related to sensations of pleasure and reward; cortisol increases blood flow to all parts of your body including your genitals, allowing them to become aroused.

How Does Female Sexuality Work?
In short, a lot of research has been done on female sexuality and very little on male sexuality. This makes sense when you look at how we view women as sexual beings in our society, but it also makes it hard to tell which gender truly has a stronger sex drive. Studies suggest that women want sex for emotional reasons whereas men want sex for physical reasons. However, these studies are far from conclusive, especially since they are always focused on heterosexual men and women. There have been some research efforts focusing specifically on gay men’s and lesbian women’s sex drives, but their results didn’t really give us much to go off of either.

What Influences Gender’s Sexuality Drive?
As a man, you might think your sex drive is on fire compared to a woman’s. If you’ve read much about sexual health, you’ve probably heard that a woman can have multiple orgasms, but only one during intercourse. While there’s some truth to that claim, in reality, women’s sexuality is as varied and complex as men’s. The short answer to who has a stronger sex drive: it depends. A lot of factors go into who has the higher libido—if indeed one gender has a higher libido than another.

Why Are There So Many Stereotypes About One Gender Being Sexier Than Another?
We typically categorize people as either being men or women, then attach certain characteristics to each of those categories. But why do we attach these stereotypes to certain genders and not others? What makes a man masculine, what makes a woman feminine, and what’s with all these terrible double standards in between? Before you read any further, I have one question for you: where did your idea of what defines a man come from anyway? Hint: it wasn’t your genitals that determined it. The media plays a huge role in shaping our perception of gender roles by giving us examples to follow and telling us how we should behave—but they do so selectively. Certain characters are portrayed as manly, while other portrayals are presented as not cool. It doesn’t matter which character is dressed in drag on TV; if it’s male-presenting (and especially if he wears lipstick), he’s going to get insulted no matter what. If you grew up watching TV shows like The Andy Griffith Show or Leave It To Beaver, you probably thought boys were supposed to be gentle and kind while girls were supposed to be docile housewives who cared more about home than a career.

The Takeaway
Generally speaking, men have stronger sex drives than women. If a man goes for long periods without sexual activity, he’ll likely begin to experience blue balls, whereas women may feel an increasing sense of arousal and frustration but won’t see their sexual function impacted as severely. Hormones also play a role in determining sex drive; while both men and women produce testosterone and estrogen, men tend to have higher levels of both hormones than women do. That said, there are plenty of exceptions—there are millions of people who don’t fit neatly into either category!