Desiree's Desires, Inc.Our sex lives don’t stop as we age, but you still need to be safe!
Sex over 60 is happening! Sorry all you young people who don’t think your parents, baby boomers, or seniors are having sex. They are! What’s alarming, though, is folks having sex over 60 are at great risk for Sexual Transmitted Infections (STIs). Time to institute and instill some sex ed for our friends having sex over 60.
Like their twenty-something counterparts, Americans 65 and older have the same rapid growth in STIs transmission of those in the 20-24 age range. What does this mean? Young adults and older adults both think STIs can’t happen to them. Lets start talking about this. It’s time to educate our growing population. They aren’t dead yet and still have sexual desire. People engaging in sex over 60 still need to know the consequences of their actions. They need to protect themselves and their bodies just as much as the American youth has to use protection. Safe sex doesn’t discriminate based on age.
The sex over 60 statistics
In 2013, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study on sex and seniors. More than 50% of people ages 64-75 reported having sex. In fact, one-third of folks 70 years or older reported having sex twice per month. To all my thirty-something married friends, the old people (potentially with medical conditions) are having sex just as much as you are. What does that say about your sex life? We’ll have to discuss that another time! 🙂
Also in 2013, Florida lead the nation in new HIV cases. What is interesting to know is 25% of the new cases were people over the age of 50. There is also a rapid rate increase in America of certain STIs that are affecting our sex over 60 crowd. Chlamydia is up 31% and Syphilis is up 52% in the sex over 60 population. This is a similar rate to that of college-aged people.
The boom in sex over 60
Why are older adults at risk of STIs? Many believe because they can’t get pregnant anymore, they don’t need to use protection. What is happening, however, is many older individuals are moving to group living situations: assisted living, nursing homes, and planned adult communities. We tell our kids going off to college,” don’t get too crazy in the dorms.” Well, senior living communities do have the tendency to get just as crazy too. In fact, 85-year-old Dr. Truth the Condom Lady visits many of these “old age homes.” She is the first to tell you, seniors are having sex and they are having a lot of it. She reports seniors having sex frequently and with multiple partners. Apparently, grandma is getting around and grandpa is the talk of Shady Pines. 🙂
Looking forward to sex over 60
I personally think this is good. I am well-educated and understand the risks associated with sex. I’m hopefully that as our country becomes more comfortable with sex and sexuality, the potential for STIs running rampant as I age will diminish. I totally expect to continue to have sex over 60, and I hope I’m healthy enough to do so. Sex is really healthy for all of us at any age. As I think about the decades in front of me, there are all kinds of unknowns. What I do know is if you don’t use it, you lose it. As an older women I met once said, “I’m having sex until they bury me, and even then, I’m sure I’ll meet someone in Heaven. After all, I’m a hot shit.”
What do you think about sex as we age?