More Sex for Today's Seniors

Tara Parker-Pope
New York Times
July 22, 2008


The sex lives of senior citizens have improved markedly in the past three decades, according to a new study.

The data, published in The British Medical Journal, have been collected since the 1970s from 1,500 Swedish adults, all of whom were 70 years old at the time of the interview. Although the report is from Sweden, it mirrors recent research in the United States that shows many people continue to have active sex lives well into old age.

But the Swedish data are notable in that they illuminate how people’s sex lives and attitudes have changed over time. Today’s seniors report that they are having sex far more often and have more positive feelings associated with sex than their counterparts just 30 years ago.

From 1971 to 2000 the proportion of 70-year-olds reporting sexual intercourse increased, although interestingly, more married men say they are having sex than married women. Among married men, 68 percent were having sex, compared to 52 percent in 1971. Among married women, 56 percent were having sex, compared to 38 percent in the 1970s.

Sexual activity also has increased for unmarried seniors. Among the single, 54 percent of the men and 12 percent of the women reported having sex, up from 30 percent of men and less than 1 percent of women in the 1970s.

Among those who were sexually active, more than one in four seniors in 2000 reported having sex once or more a week, compared to only about 10 percent in the 1970s.
More than half of men and women reported very happy relationships, compared to just more than one-third in the 1970s. Overall, modern 70-year-olds reported higher satisfaction with sexuality, fewer sexual dysfunctions and more positive attitudes to sexuality in later life than those who were interviewed in the 1970s.

The researchers noted that the study wasn’t designed to determine why seniors appear to be having more sex. However, the people interviewed in the 1970s were born at the turn of the century, at a time when sexuality and sexual pleasure were not discussed. The last generation of 70-year-olds interviewed for the study were in their 30s during the 1960s sexual revolution and may have had more liberal values about sex.

Modern 70-year-olds likely are more healthy as well. During the course of the study, life expectancy for Swedes jumped five years for men, to age 77, and four years for women, to age 82. Modern seniors also have access to medications like Viagra that earlier generations did not.

Original link: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/more-sex-for-todays-seniors/?em