--- title: Losing Your Virginity Is Better Than Ever, Study Says description: New study shows that the "first time" is more enjoyable for this generation than for previous ones canonical: https://time.com/3024888/sex-virginity-virgins-female-sexuality/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-24T11:05:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:42.510Z og:title: Losing Your Virginity Is Better Than Ever, Study Says og:description: New study shows that the "first time" is more enjoyable for this generation than for previous ones og:url: https://time.com/3024888/sex-virginity-virgins-female-sexuality/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Losing Your Virginity Is Better Than Ever, Study Says twitter:description: New study shows that the "first time" is more enjoyable for this generation than for previous ones twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Losing Your Virginity Is Better Than Ever > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Jul 24, 2014 11:05 AM UTC  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Jul 24, 2014 11:05 AM UTC If you’re a young virgin, you’re in luck! According to a new study from the [Journal of Sex Research](http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224499.2013.867923#tabModule), losing your virginity these days is more enjoyable than it’s been in 20 years, at least if you’re a woman. Researchers found overall gender differences in male and female approaches to virginity loss, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. Men are much more likely to have a “pleasurable experience” than women (a truth universally acknowledged) but also reported more anxiety surrounding the act. Women were much more likely to feel guilty after having sex for the first time. But the good news is that those differences have changed significantly since the research started in 1980\. While men reported the same amount of “pleasure” from their first sexual experience across three decades, women have reported a significant increase in first-time-fun-times since the study began. Men also reported less anxiety over the three decades, and women reported less guilt. Which means losing your virginity now is probably going to be a better experience now than ever before. The researchers also point out that the findings are consistent with the theory of erotic plasticity, which states that female sexuality is more likely to change with social and cultural norms. But if women are reporting more pleasure and less guilt from their first time, and men are reporting less anxiety, that’s good news for everyone! ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3024888/sex-virginity-virgins-female-sexuality/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3024888/sex-virginity-virgins-female-sexuality/"},"headline":"Losing Your Virginity Is Better Than Ever","datePublished":"2014-07-24T11:05:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:42.510Z","description":"New study shows that the \"first time\" is more enjoyable for this generation than for previous ones","url":"https://time.com/3024888/sex-virginity-virgins-female-sexuality/","keywords":["Living","Teens","Sex","Anxiety"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3024888/sex-virginity-virgins-female-sexuality/","name":"Losing Your Virginity Is Better Than Ever"}}]}] ```