Getting older with an active sex life
Posted by Jennifer Amato on 08/23/2007 in General SexEd Articles
Tags:
sex,
better sex and how to,
relationships,
sexuality,
The study of 3,005 adults ages 57 to 85 found the majority had an active sex life with a partner or spouse. More than half of sexually active older adults had sex two to three times a month - the same frequency reported among younger adults in a 1992 national survey.
The report in the New England Journal of Medicine found passions cooled as people aged but said the declining interest in sex couldn't be attributed to age alone. An acute shortage of older men prevented many women in their 70s and 80s from hooking up, researchers said.
In addition, older adults with health problems got lucky much less often.
Participants in the study were considered sexually active if they had any sort of sexual contact with someone else in the preceding 12 months.
The nationwide study provides the most comprehensive look yet at sexual activity among older Americans. Researchers said they hoped the findings would dispel commonly held notions that people lose interest in sex as they age and that sex is the province of the young.
"Older people are just younger people later in life," said lead author Dr. Stacy Tessler Lindau, a gynecologist at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.
Personal choices
Still, Lindau cautioned that the study wasn't meant to set a standard for normal sexual behavior that older people should feel compelled to reach despite their personal preferences or circumstances.
"Certainly many people make a choice not to be sexually active," she said.
In the study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, subjects were divided into three age groups. Nearly three-quarters of adults ages 57 to 64 were sexually active compared with about one-quarter of adults ages 75 to 85, according to the report. About half of adults ages 65 to 74 were sexually active.
A difference in life spans created a "lack of opportunity" for older women, Lindau said. At age 64, there were eight men for every 10 women in the United States. By 85, there were four men for every 10 women.
American women live five to seven years longer than men.
Health issues
Across all age groups, poor health substantially slowed people down. Men who rated their health as fair to poor reported being sexually active 21 percent as often as men in very good to excellent health. Women with health problems were sexually active 32 percent as often.
Diabetes was associated with reduced sexual activity, particularly in women. Sexual behavior was unaffected by arthritis and high blood pressure.
Men and women held sharply different opinions about the importance of sex; 35 percent of women rated sex as "not at all important" compared with 13 percent of men, according to the report.
Edward O. Laumann, a co-author and sociologist at the University of Chicago, said a decline in sexual activity might be an early signal of deterioration in overall health.
Researchers said the overall findings should help reassure older adults that whatever their sexual preferences and problems, they are not alone. "Sexuality does not disappear when you get Social Security," said Dr. Edward Schneider, a professor of gerontology at the Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California who was not connected with the study.
SOURCE: Denise Gellene, Los Angeles Times. mercurynews.com
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