More than 30 per cent of men aged 76 – 80 said they thought about sex at least once a week, compared to just 7 per cent of women.

But while older men were more than twice as likely to think about sex than women, those females who did think about intercourse regularly were more likely to engage in sexual activity – regardless of ill health.

The report, by the think tank International Longevity Centre (ILC), explored the intimate lives of pensioners, using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.

It found 60 per cent of men age 65 and 37 per cent of women engaged in sexual activity in the past year.