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
Showing posts with label stds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stds. Show all posts
Monday, March 5, 2012
Saturday, July 17, 2010
STDs in the Viagra Age
MARILYN LINTON
St. Catharines Standard
July 12, 2010
"Sex at age 90 is like trying to shoot pool with a rope," quipped comic George Burns before he, or anyone, had ever heard of Viagra. Today, the little blue pill and other erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs offer a solution to the estimated one in 10 North American men who suffer from ED. But better sex doesn't mean safer sex. Even though sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are more pronounced among younger men, a study by Boston's Dr. Anupam Jena found that men over the age of 40 who used ED drugs were more likely to have STDs than were non-users.
"Anyone who does not practice safer sex, no matter their age, can contract an STD," says Dr. Jena of the Massachusetts General Hospital's Department of Medicine, whose study investigated the associations between STDs and ED use among 1.4 million privately insured U.S. men over the age of 40.
His report echoes the findings of other studies when it comes to the increase in STDs among older adults, including one from the United Kingdom which showed the doubling of STDs among adults aged 45 years or older from 1996 to 2003. An earlier study from Harvard showed that STDs rose by 83% for older, recently bereaved men from 1998 onward.
Safe sex reminders do appear on ED drug company websites (along with warnings of possible four hour erections). But there are many reasons that older men may be ignoring or not processing the safe sex message. One is that many older men are simply unaware of STDs fithink of Austin Powers' quip of "Only sailors wear condoms, baby" after time-travelling from the 1960s to the late 1990s. Others, having come from an age when the language of sex and the courtship dance was different, would rather eat nails than ask someone their sexual history.
Older men are often the ones not using condoms, says Dr. Jena. "The reason is that their awareness of STDs is lower, and, even if they know they exist, they think STDs are not that common." The main reason that young adults use protection is to prevent pregnancy, something that older couples don't usually worry about, he adds. Older people over the age of 50 are also less likely to be tested for HIV infection.
In the study, Dr. Jena and his co-authors discovered that in both the year before and the year after users filled their first ED drug prescription, they had significantly higher rates of STDs than non-users.
"The first implication of that finding is that men who are using ED drugs aren't necessarily men who aren't having any sex at all. That's not the public you see these ads directed to," says Dr. Jena. (Indeed, the medical community has expressed concern that ED drugs have become lifestyle drugs used to enhance sexual pleasure, even in men who have no ED.)
Dr. Jena stresses that the study does not conclude that ED drugs cause STDs but that the men who use them have a higher sexual risk profile (and STD rates two to three times higher) than men who are non-users. These rates include HIV infection.
An editorial in last week's Annals of Internal Medicine, which published the July 6 report, notes that despite the study's limitations, the findings are both "believable and alarming."
This study, writes Dr. Thomas Fekete, "reminds us that STD counseling should not stop at age 40."
And that doctors shouldn't assume that older people don't have sex. Dr. Jena adds that doctors routinely address lifestyle and sexual issues fieverything from tobacco use to safe sex fiin younger patients: "We ask if he or she is monogamous, or if they have multiple partners, are they practicing safe sex. We ask that whole set of questions to men and women who are young, but we haven't been asking them of adults over the age of 40 or 50."
marilyn.linton@sunmedia.ca
Original source: http://stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2664453
St. Catharines Standard
July 12, 2010
"Sex at age 90 is like trying to shoot pool with a rope," quipped comic George Burns before he, or anyone, had ever heard of Viagra. Today, the little blue pill and other erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs offer a solution to the estimated one in 10 North American men who suffer from ED. But better sex doesn't mean safer sex. Even though sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are more pronounced among younger men, a study by Boston's Dr. Anupam Jena found that men over the age of 40 who used ED drugs were more likely to have STDs than were non-users.
"Anyone who does not practice safer sex, no matter their age, can contract an STD," says Dr. Jena of the Massachusetts General Hospital's Department of Medicine, whose study investigated the associations between STDs and ED use among 1.4 million privately insured U.S. men over the age of 40.
His report echoes the findings of other studies when it comes to the increase in STDs among older adults, including one from the United Kingdom which showed the doubling of STDs among adults aged 45 years or older from 1996 to 2003. An earlier study from Harvard showed that STDs rose by 83% for older, recently bereaved men from 1998 onward.
Safe sex reminders do appear on ED drug company websites (along with warnings of possible four hour erections). But there are many reasons that older men may be ignoring or not processing the safe sex message. One is that many older men are simply unaware of STDs fithink of Austin Powers' quip of "Only sailors wear condoms, baby" after time-travelling from the 1960s to the late 1990s. Others, having come from an age when the language of sex and the courtship dance was different, would rather eat nails than ask someone their sexual history.
Older men are often the ones not using condoms, says Dr. Jena. "The reason is that their awareness of STDs is lower, and, even if they know they exist, they think STDs are not that common." The main reason that young adults use protection is to prevent pregnancy, something that older couples don't usually worry about, he adds. Older people over the age of 50 are also less likely to be tested for HIV infection.
In the study, Dr. Jena and his co-authors discovered that in both the year before and the year after users filled their first ED drug prescription, they had significantly higher rates of STDs than non-users.
"The first implication of that finding is that men who are using ED drugs aren't necessarily men who aren't having any sex at all. That's not the public you see these ads directed to," says Dr. Jena. (Indeed, the medical community has expressed concern that ED drugs have become lifestyle drugs used to enhance sexual pleasure, even in men who have no ED.)
Dr. Jena stresses that the study does not conclude that ED drugs cause STDs but that the men who use them have a higher sexual risk profile (and STD rates two to three times higher) than men who are non-users. These rates include HIV infection.
An editorial in last week's Annals of Internal Medicine, which published the July 6 report, notes that despite the study's limitations, the findings are both "believable and alarming."
This study, writes Dr. Thomas Fekete, "reminds us that STD counseling should not stop at age 40."
And that doctors shouldn't assume that older people don't have sex. Dr. Jena adds that doctors routinely address lifestyle and sexual issues fieverything from tobacco use to safe sex fiin younger patients: "We ask if he or she is monogamous, or if they have multiple partners, are they practicing safe sex. We ask that whole set of questions to men and women who are young, but we haven't been asking them of adults over the age of 40 or 50."
marilyn.linton@sunmedia.ca
Original source: http://stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2664453
Friday, June 11, 2010
Tips for Talking about STDs
by Gloria G. Brame
03/31/2009
One of the most difficult conversations for new lovers concerns the sticky issue of sexual health. At the same time, finding out your partner's STD status it is the single most important sexual conversation you may ever have. So here are tips on getting the info you need to make that critical talk go smoothly, and ensure that you are left with a happy memory and not an unhappy disease.
Why You Gotta
No one WANTS to have this conversation. It's clinical and embarrassing and thwarts spontaneity. Unfortunately, you gotta. STDs are at an all-time high in all age groups (particularly college-age kids and the elderly), and some of them (HPV, herpes and HIV) are incurable. If you get one of those diseases, your life will change for the worse. Sterility, pain, cancer, and even death are the price Americans are paying for their inability to talk about STDs. So learn to make the STD conversation a healthy priority in your sex life. The benefits of staying healthy far outweigh any temporary awkwardness.
Time It Right
Talk to your partner about STDs before the sex-play begins. Don't wait until your clothes are off and your desire is boiling. Arousal and nudity have a funny effect on people: it makes them fib, fudge, and get fuzzy about specifics. It also makes them willing to take crazy risks. Talk about it on the drive home; discuss it by phone. Just don't wait until your brain is clouded by lust. Also important: It may be fun to have sex when you're tipsy or high, but this conversation should only take place when you and your partner are stone cold sober.
Take the First Step
A diplomatic approach is to start the conversation by telling your partner about your own status. Remember that if you want honesty, you must give honesty: if you have any concerns about former lovers or if you haven't been tested for something you think you could have picked up, it is your moral obligation to inform a potential partner of the risk. So set the example: give your partner a clear picture of your sexual health. Most people will volunteer the same information in response. If your lover refuses to have this conversation, walk away. In my clinical experience, people who conceal their STD status have something (big) to hide.
Deal With It
It's human nature to want something so much that we overlook red flags. This is especially true when we're dying to sleep with someone. But be prepared to deal with reality if you don't get the answers you were hoping for. Ask how many partners they've had; ask if they regularly use condoms or others types of STD protection; ask if they've been screened for STDs. If your partner is vague or treats the subject as if it isn't important, don't brush it off. If they can't discuss the subject openly with you they probably didn't discuss it with their former partners and that is very bad news for you. Sexually active adults who don't make an effort to prevent STDs usually end up getting them and infecting their partners.
Don't Over-React To It
So your hot and sexy partner just revealed that he or she has an STD. Don't freak out: it doesn't mean you can't have great sex. It just means you have to have safe sex. There are many happy, long-term couples out there where one partner is infected and the other never catches it. Virtually every known STD can be prevented so don't think someone's STD means the end of your sex life together. Educate yourself on the particular STD, and follow the CDC's guidelines on prevention. Meanwhile, don't hesitate to explore safe-sex options, such as mutual masturbation, using adult toys, and role-play.
Source:www.loveandhealth.info
03/31/2009
One of the most difficult conversations for new lovers concerns the sticky issue of sexual health. At the same time, finding out your partner's STD status it is the single most important sexual conversation you may ever have. So here are tips on getting the info you need to make that critical talk go smoothly, and ensure that you are left with a happy memory and not an unhappy disease.
Why You Gotta
No one WANTS to have this conversation. It's clinical and embarrassing and thwarts spontaneity. Unfortunately, you gotta. STDs are at an all-time high in all age groups (particularly college-age kids and the elderly), and some of them (HPV, herpes and HIV) are incurable. If you get one of those diseases, your life will change for the worse. Sterility, pain, cancer, and even death are the price Americans are paying for their inability to talk about STDs. So learn to make the STD conversation a healthy priority in your sex life. The benefits of staying healthy far outweigh any temporary awkwardness.
Time It Right
Talk to your partner about STDs before the sex-play begins. Don't wait until your clothes are off and your desire is boiling. Arousal and nudity have a funny effect on people: it makes them fib, fudge, and get fuzzy about specifics. It also makes them willing to take crazy risks. Talk about it on the drive home; discuss it by phone. Just don't wait until your brain is clouded by lust. Also important: It may be fun to have sex when you're tipsy or high, but this conversation should only take place when you and your partner are stone cold sober.
Take the First Step
A diplomatic approach is to start the conversation by telling your partner about your own status. Remember that if you want honesty, you must give honesty: if you have any concerns about former lovers or if you haven't been tested for something you think you could have picked up, it is your moral obligation to inform a potential partner of the risk. So set the example: give your partner a clear picture of your sexual health. Most people will volunteer the same information in response. If your lover refuses to have this conversation, walk away. In my clinical experience, people who conceal their STD status have something (big) to hide.
Deal With It
It's human nature to want something so much that we overlook red flags. This is especially true when we're dying to sleep with someone. But be prepared to deal with reality if you don't get the answers you were hoping for. Ask how many partners they've had; ask if they regularly use condoms or others types of STD protection; ask if they've been screened for STDs. If your partner is vague or treats the subject as if it isn't important, don't brush it off. If they can't discuss the subject openly with you they probably didn't discuss it with their former partners and that is very bad news for you. Sexually active adults who don't make an effort to prevent STDs usually end up getting them and infecting their partners.
Don't Over-React To It
So your hot and sexy partner just revealed that he or she has an STD. Don't freak out: it doesn't mean you can't have great sex. It just means you have to have safe sex. There are many happy, long-term couples out there where one partner is infected and the other never catches it. Virtually every known STD can be prevented so don't think someone's STD means the end of your sex life together. Educate yourself on the particular STD, and follow the CDC's guidelines on prevention. Meanwhile, don't hesitate to explore safe-sex options, such as mutual masturbation, using adult toys, and role-play.
Source:www.loveandhealth.info
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Seniors and STDs on Scrubs
I've been searching for this video clip-- an old episode from 2008--from the TV show, Scrubs. I was so impressed that the writers of this show actually address this subject and educate viewers on some important facts on aging and sexuality. It's a great example of how sexually transmitted diseases in the elderly can be misdiagnosed and also undiagnosed. Physicians may not address the issue of sexuality with their older patients due to embarrassment on their part and for their patients, and myths that seniors are asexual. As Dr. Cox so eloquently puts it, "the one thing they damn sure can do is have sex until they croak. The fact of the matter is thanks to a variety of male enhancement drugs, stds have increased among the elderly by 300%" Eliot's comment that "old people sex is disgusting!" sadly, is an attitude that is common among many health care professionals due to long held sterotypes of the elderly.
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