Sex | A Taboo For Elderly

In the world, full of people with different beliefs, to date a global misconception prevails that with age, sex must be bidden farewell. There’s no law regarding prohibition of sex for senior citizens therefore retiring from a perfect sexual life should definitely not consume people’s mind. One is never too old to steam things up in the bed and pleasure knows no age limits.

There is no denying that age does actually bring about some sexual changes and in contrast to teen sex, the senior sex is usually less ebullient, however it is super comfortable. Some people are full of life and romance and continue to live up to their definition of a perfect sexual life until the very end. Writer of the book Naked At Our Age: Talking Out Loud About Senior Sex, Joan Price believes that senior sex explores new levels of intimacy, sensuality, pleasure, ecstasy and erotic feelings.

What Percentage Of Elderly People Engage In Regular Sexual Activity?

But do people at senior age go for sex? How many senior people give sex a priority? Recently researchers at University of Chicago conducted a survey on the sex life of national senior citizens with their ages ranging between 57 and 85. The respondents were questioned about whether they had sex in the duration of previous 12 months.

The following results were obtained:

Men with a positive answer:

• Age group 57-64 years old: 84%
• Age group 65-74 years old: 67%
• Age group 75-85 years old: 39%

Women with a positive answer:

• Age group 57-64 years old: 62%
• Age group 65-74 years old: 40%
• Age group 75-85 years old: 17%

What Are Some Causes Of Low Sexual Activity In Elderly People?

This shows that a good percentage of men choose to remain sexually active even in their mid-70’s whereas

majority of the women give up on their sex life after their mid-60’s. This may be due to health factor that becomes more prominent with age as people start developing illnesses and diseases such as that of heart or even diabetes. The other factor may be partner loss; which affects most of the elderly women, because on an average scale, men have a comparatively shorter life span as compared to women and usually women opt for partners who are older than them. Therefore, some senior women spend the last few years of their life as widows. As the circle of life speeds towards its end, men develop life threatening medical conditions which may prevent them from having sex which in turn may cut off any opportunity available for their lady partners to hope for senior sex.

This brings us to the next point, does sexual satisfaction fades away with age? That is certainly not the case. A survey conducted on 801 senior Americans aged between 45 and 65, by Newsweek back in 2001 showed interesting findings. The respondents were asked about whether the sex was more enjoyable in their young age and 59% of the women and 57% of the men said sex then and in their young age was equally enjoyable or even better.

In Britain, researchers found similar results after conducting a survey on 4000 senior citizens. Three quarters of the participants under the age of 45 told that they were sexually satisfied whereas 75% of the participants aged above 65 confessed that sex was as enjoyable to them as it was in their earlier life.

Ageing is an inevitable natural process that may also affect the sexual life by causing some serious problems such as menopause in women, after which they often complain about:

- Vaginal atrophy

- Vaginal dryness

- Thinning of the wall of vagina.

Such problems may cause a significant hindrance in sexual life. Similarly, aging affects men as well and they experience problems associated to erection and arousal. Some men also develop ED (erectile dysfunction) which is characterized by inability to get a strong erection even after thorough masturbation. Nevertheless, erection is less reliable and strong in all older men.

Intercourse and pleasure is not entirely bound to sex. Old age problems of erection or vaginal dryness may be set aside in order to have a good time with the partner. Massaging the genital area with the hand, oral sex and use of sex toys can only make things more magical in bed for older people.

Often older men are concerned about how not having a strong erection can’t allow them to have an orgasm. For a male orgasm, erection is not necessary. With an effective hand massage in an erotic setup can totally help men achieve a pleasuring orgasm.

The bottom line is age is just a number and there’s no stopping an old age person from having senior sex. Being with someone for a lifetime doesn’t make a huge difference when hitting the senior years and sex is just as enjoyable and steamy hot as it was in the earlier years of life.

References

• Beckman, N., Waern, M., Östling, S., Sundh, V., & Skoog, I. (2014). Determinants of Sexual Activity in Four Birth Cohorts of Swedish 70‐year‐olds Examined 1971–2001. The journal of sexual medicine, 11(2), 401-410.
• Müller, B., Nienaber, C. A., Reis, O., Kropp, P., & Meyer, W. (2014). Sexuality and affection among elderly German men and women in long-term relationships: Results of a prospective population-based study. PloS one, 9(11), e111404.