Older, But Still Sexual
Many seniors have active sex lives into their 80s

(HealthDay News) -- Older Americans aren't putting their sex lives on a shelf.

Rather, many have an active sex life "even in the eighth and ninth decades of life," a landmark study reported.

Researchers gained insight into the sex lives of U.S. adults, aged 57 to 85, in a study gauging sexual attitudes, behaviors and problems. The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine .

Though the prevalence of sexual activity declined with age and was uniformly lower among women than men, it showed that many older adults remain sexually active. Even among the oldest age group (aged 75 to 85), 54 percent of sexually active people reported having sex at least two to three times a month, and 23 percent reported having sex once a week or more.

"This gives us, for the first time, the most comprehensive and nationally representative data on sexuality for men and women and makes a particular contribution with regard to knowledge of older women's sexuality," lead author Dr. Stacy Tessler Lindau, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and of medicine at the University of Chicago , said in a teleconference.

As people age, they still seek closeness and want to have a satisfying sex life, says the National Institute on Aging. But the aging process can bring on physical changes that affect the ability to have and enjoy sex.

Women can have less vaginal lubrication, which can diminish sexual pleasure, for example. Men commonly experience difficulty having or maintaining an erection as they age. By age 65, 15 to 25 percent of men have this problem at least one of every four times they have sex, the institute reports.

Still, there's much that men and women can do to continue an active sex life, it says. For women, over-the-counter vaginal lubricants are available, or a doctor might recommend estrogen supplements or an estrogen vaginal insert. Erectile dysfunction in men often can be treated through prescription pills, injectable drugs, vacuum devices or penile implants.

For the study, researchers conducted 3,005 in-home interviews of U.S. adults between July 2005 and March 2006.

It found that aging creates something of a sexual gender gap: 78 percent of men 75 to 85 years old had a spouse or other intimate relationship, versus just 40 percent of women in this age group.

What's more, more women than men (35 percent versus 13 percent) rated sex as "not at all important."

"Men tend to be married until they die, and women spend their final years as widows," noted Linda Waite, a senior author of the study and an urban sociology professor at the University of Chicago . Also, while men tend to have younger partners, women have older partners, resulting in fewer opportunities for sexual intimacy for women, she added.

The study also highlighted the impact of health on sex. Those who rated their health as poor were less likely to be sexually active.

"For physicians, it really gives us a wake-up call that you should be asking about sexual function," Dr. Laurie Jacobs, associate professor and chief of geriatric medicine at Montefiore Medicine Center in New York City, told HealthDay .

On the Web

To learn more about sexual health in seniors, check out information provided by the American Academy of Family Physicians.

SOURCES: HealthDay News ; Aug. 20, 2007, teleconference with Stacy Tessler Lindau, M.D., assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and of medicine, University of Chicago, and director, Center on Aging, National Opinion Research Center, Chicago; Linda Waite, Ph.D., Lucy Flower Professor in Urban Sociology, University of Chicago; Laurie Jacobs, M.D., associate professor and chief of geriatric medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, New York City; Aug. 23, 2007, New England Journal of Medicine ; National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, Md.
Author: Karen Pallarito
Publication Date: Aug. 31, 2008
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