Meredith Heagney, The Columbus Dispatch
February 26, 2012
Nobody reminds Grandpa to wear a condom, but maybe we should.
Today’s older adults are living longer, healthier lives that often include sex. Doctors say that’s good news, because it means the physical and emotional benefits of sex aren’t restricted to the young.
But sexual freedom in the golden years has a downside, too: Physicians say they’re seeing a growing number of cases of sexually transmitted diseases among older patients.
“Age is not a reason for people to stop having sex,” said Dr. Sharon A. Brangman, chairwoman of the board of directors of the American Geriatrics Society and chief of geriatrics at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, N.Y.
“We need to counter some of the myths we have about aging and sexuality. We need to have educational campaigns so older adults continue to practice safe sex, particularly if they have multiple partners.”
Older people are at risk because many believe they need not worry about safe sex when pregnancy isn’t a possibility, said Dr. Mysheika LeMaile-Williams, medical director at Columbus Public Health.
After a death or divorce, older men and women might be dating for the first time in decades, and they missed many of the messages about protecting against disease, she said.
And with erectile-dysfunction drugs such as Viagra, many older men are back in the mix.
Heinz and Waltraud Putz live in Worthington and have been married since 1959. Mr. Putz, 77, said the couple knows a number of older people who have multiple sex partners.
“If your girlfriend is 70,” STDs are “the last thing you worry about,” he said recently as he watched his wife participate in a line-dancing class at the Griswold Center in Worthington.
“I can’t imagine any of these girls having anything like that.”
But doctors say that’s not the case.
“STDs don’t discriminate by age,” LeMaile-Williams said.
Nationally, there was a slight increase in syphilis rates for people 65 or older from 2000 to 2010 and a decrease in gonorrhea and chlamydia rates, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The rates are still very low; the most common disease of the three, chlamydia, is reported in just 2.4 of every 100,000 adults 65 and older, or 954 cases in 2010. In recent years, people 50 and older have accounted for 11 percent of new HIV infections in the United States.
In Ohio, the rates of adults 65 and older with gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis decreased in 2006-2010, according to Ohio Department of Health figures.
In 2009, there were just eight new reported diagnoses of HIV (with or without AIDS) in adults 65 and older in Ohio, the same number as in 2000. In that time period, the number of people between the ages of 45 and 64 with a new HIV or AIDS diagnosis rose from 170 to 261.
Experts say, however, that these numbers are low because they are likely underreported. While sexually transmitted diseases are reportable, doctors often treat STDs without confirming its presence with a test. No confirmation, no reporting.
Either way, some older men and women are taking precautions.
Elizabeth Collins, 78, said she has dated 41 men since her divorce in the 1980s. She said she hasn’t been intimate with all of them, and when she does have sex, she makes her partners get tested for AIDS.
She “loves sex” but still chooses to take her relationships slowly, said Collins, who lives on the Northwest Side.
“When they start to get frisky, I say to them, ‘As handsome as you are ... people should be friends before they’re lovers.’ ”
Rates of sexually transmitted diseases could increase among older people as baby boomers age, said Dr. Robert Murden, a professor of geriatrics and internal medicine at Ohio State University.
He said those who came of age in the 1960s likely will change the culture of old age.
And as long as they are safe, that’s fine, Murden said.
“Older people need that closeness and intimacy as much as younger people do.”
Original link: http://www.globalaging.org/health/us/2012/Ohio%20STDs.html
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