Men prefer younger women! Just look at how fashionable ‘May and December’ romances are in celebrity circles – there’s Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones, Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, and Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, to name but a few. If Hollywood trends aren’t enough to convince you, recent research, published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology, claims the phenomenon to be a fact.

The research, carried out by Gothenburg and Oxford universities, studied 400 matchmaking ads displayed in newspapers and on dating websites. It found that men in all categories prefer younger women, while the majority of women aged 20 to 39 seek an older man. However, women over 60 tend to look for younger men.

Hooking up with a younger woman prolongs a man’s life, according to a new study from Germany’s Max Planck Institute. The researchers found that men who marry a woman between 15 and 17 years younger reduce by one-fifth their chances of dying early. Sadly, women don’t experience the same benefits from marrying younger or older men.

However, significant age gaps can raise some issues that need to be aired early in the relationship, according to Tony Moore, relationship counsellor with Marriage and Relationship Counselling Service (MRCS).

“There are no hard and fast rules about age and relationships but there are some issues to consider,” Moore says. “Couples of a similar age will have had shared experiences while growing up and, by and large, will have shared interests. Often, the bigger the age gap, the more significant the differences in terms of sex, interests, expectations, life stage and finances.

“At the start of a relationship these differences don’t matter. But when tensions emerge, as they will do in time, these differences will matter more and more,” he explains.

Although it’s tempting to throw caution to the wind when you’re in love, planning ahead is crucial in age-gap relationships.

“A lot of couples only think in the short term but it’s important to consider if the age difference will interfere with your own personal goals; whether you want to concentrate on your career, have children or spend your free time travelling,” warns Moore.

“Discuss the future and consider topics like finances, children, retirement goals and career choices. Talk seriously about how the age difference may affect both your lives one year, five years and possibly 20 years down the road,” he advises.

Couples also need to prepare themselves for the inevitable comments, advice and possible disapproval from friends, family and children from previous relationships.

It can be very difficult, particularly if you are the older person in the relationship, to walk away from someone younger who finds you attractive, says Moore. However, couples have to be practical and look at the overall picture.

Inheritance and property rights also need to be explored and discussed where there are children from a previous relationship.

“It is possible to have a secure and loving relationship in which there is an age difference, as long as both people understand the issues that may arise and work together to resolve them,” says Moore.