Aging Baby Boomers and Seniors Are at Risk for HIV

By Pj Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times
January 15, 2009


Jane Fowler thinks it’s about time college students had “the talk” with their grandparents. She doesn’t mean grandmothers and grandfathers explaining the facts of life. She wants kids to explain safe sex to their elders.

It’s part of a broader message the 72-year-old has advocated for more than a decade. Ever since she contracted HIV when she was in her 50s, Fowler has made it her mission to help aging Baby Boomers and members of her generation avoid her mistakes.

“Once people get past their own embarrassment and understand grandparents today are still sexually active, they realize I’m right,” said Fowler, who spoke at a recent safe-sex event at Kansas State University. “Their grandparents face the same risks of sexually transmitted diseases as they do.”

The over-50 crowd is a relatively small segment of the nation’s at-risk group for sexually transmitted diseases. Approximately four times as many HIV diagnoses occurred in people ages 25 to 44 as in those 50 and older, according to a 2005 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Still, medical experts agree that older Americans often are among the most overlooked and, therefore, one of the more vulnerable populations.

Little funding

They point out that most funding for preventive education over the last two decades has been aimed at the traditional high-risk populations, such as teenagers, gay people and urban residents.

Others, however, say that many Baby Boomers were young enough when the public first became aware of the AIDS crisis that they should have gotten plenty of exposure to safe-sex campaigns.

Many older patients feel uneasy discussing sexual behavior with their physicians, according to AARP research. Young doctors, too, can be uncomfortable talking about STD risks with people old enough to be their parents or grandparents, according to a recent study backed by the National Institutes of Health.

Considering that people are living longer than previous generations have, and enjoying extended sex lives because of hormone therapy and erectile-dysfunction drugs, there’s a growing concern that the Baby Boom generation and their elders don’t understand that getting older doesn’t make one immune.

That concern is fueling a national push among public health officials and educators for more prevention efforts aimed at those who are firmly in their golden years.

In Arizona, volunteers regularly have passed out free condoms at community centers, and state health workers in Florida host safe-sex programs in retirement communities. In Broward County, Fla., the Senior HIV Intervention Project recruits retirees throughout the region to become “safe-sexperts” who can persuade their neighbors to get tested for STDs.

At the University of Michigan Health System, enough patients were concerned about the effect of aging on intimacy that a clinic was opened in Ann Arbor in 2006 devoted to dealing with the sexual concerns of the 60-and-older crowd. And in Ohio, Professor Nancy Orel and staff at Bowling Green State University have preached about the risks of casual sex and offered free HIV tests.

Talk to grandparents

Orel sells the idea of using condoms and getting tested for HIV as part of serving as a role model for their younger loved ones. But to the under graduate students taking her gerontology classes at Bowling Green, the roles are reversed. One of the assignments Orel gives is for students to go home, find out what their grandparents know about HIV and discuss safe-sex practices.

“Initially, some of the students are hesitant. But a lot of them are surprised at how open the conversations can be,” said Orel, director of the university’s gerontology department.

A study published last summer in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that most of the 3,005 American adults surveyed, age 57 to 85,continued to have sex two to three times each month.

But, since turning 50, only 38 percent of the men and 22 percent of the women had had a discussion with their doctors about sex, according to the report funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Edward O. Laumann, a professor at the University of Chicago who studies human sexuality and is one of the study’s authors, said older Americans should know better than to have unprotected sex. When the HIV/AIDS epidemic started, he pointed out, many of them were young enough to have been bombarded by public education efforts.

“Educating them isn’t going to affect anything, Laumann said, “and it’s a waste of money, particularly when there’s other vulnerable groups that need the resources anyway.”

Part of the problem with figuring out exactly what risks older Americans face comes from a lack of testing data, said Spencer Lieb, senior epidemiologist at the Bureau of HIV/AIDS at the Florida Department of Health.

He said that although the number of HIV and AIDS patients in the over-50 age group nationwide had grown in recent years, some of the increase was attributed to people who are living longer with the virus or disease, thanks to improvements in therapy treatments.

But without widespread testing, “we don’t really know what the true prevalence [of STD infection] is in this group,” Lieb said. “There’s reason to think, at least anecdotally, this is a combustible situation that is being overlooked.”

Finally....Speed Dating for Seniors

Speed dating is coming to St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre in Scarborough! The popular social phenomenon that has been such a huge hit with the younger set is now finally available to older adults and seniors 55+.

St. Paul's L'Amoreaux Centre is hosting Companion Connections, a new social event specifically designed for 55+adults on Saturday, April 4, 2009 from 1:00-3:00-pm. Companion Connections is a unique way for older adults and seniors to meet peers and establish new friendships. The goal is to form new friendships and social connections among those 55+ years of age by working collaboratively with several seniors’ agencies.

Companion Connections is modeled on a typical speed dating event in which women stay seated and men rotate every 7-10 minutes. If individuals hit it off and both indicate an interest in the other by checking their name, their personal contact info will be given to their match. Contact info is only given out if both parties have checked off each other’s name. This fun, exciting and innovative introductory event enables participants to meet 20 other single seniors in one evening.

St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre’s Executive Director, Larry Burke, emphasizes the importance of social events for 55+ audiences. “We’re excited to host this unique collaboration with several partner agencies to encourage socialization among older adults and seniors,” Burke states. “We're looking forward to a successful gathering of individuals who are interested in expanding their social circles and creating new relationships in a welcoming and safe setting.”

Participants will enjoy an afternoon of fun, friends, and goody bags to take home. Refreshments will be generously provided by Steeles Deli Warehouse in Thornhill, Ontario, a long time supporter of St. Paul’s. Transportation is available through a participating seniors’ centre or St. Paul’s Transportation Department for a small fee. Seats are on a first come, first serve basis and will fill up quickly. The last day to register for the event is Saturday, March 21st.

Companion Connections aims to encourage meaningful relationships for older adults and seniors. Other agencies that have pledged to promote the event to their clients span the GTA: North York Seniors Centre, Bernard Betel Centre for Creative Living, Taylor Place, Markham Seniors Centre, West Hill Community Services, Scarborough Support Services, and Harmony Hall Centre for Seniors. St. Paul’s staff is so optimistic that the event will be a success, they have scheduled a second date in September 2009 and there are plans to schedule future events for multicultural groups.

For more information and to reserve your space, please contact Michele Cauch at St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre 416-493-3333 ext 271.

Seniors Learn the Ins and Outs of Safe Sex

By Rebecca Dellagloria, the Miami Herald
February 11, 2009

Most people don't want to think about it: Grandma and Grandpa having sex.

But they do. A lot. And it's not always safe sex.

On Tuesday, groups of apt and sexually active seniors spent the day at the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center in Northeast Dade, learning about the risks of unprotected sex in between relishing the ins and outs of getting it on.

Miami Metrozoo ambassador Ron Magill kept the crowd roaring, with his candid photos of animals getting down in the wild, and demonstrations of the distinctive sounds of tortoises experiencing coital bliss.

He passed around a penis bone from a large walrus, called an oosik and almost two feet long. He showed pictures of a frog ménage à trois (''If you've ever had a fantasy about being with multiple partners, you want to come back as a frog,'' Magill quipped). He described how flamingos need an audience to perform and how Metrozoo often uses mirrors to get them in the mood.

An interesting tidbit: the blue whale has the largest penis of any mammal, measuring 10 feet when erect.

''God bless Viagra, Cialis, Levitra and all those other things,'' Magill said.

``Animals have a bone in their penis. We got ripped off.''

Behind the levity, however, was a serious lesson: Unprotected sex among seniors is leading to a rise in AIDS/HIV and other dangerous sexually transmitted diseases.

Indeed, during the past decade, AIDS cases among those 50 and older have risen by 500 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationally, about one in 10 Americans diagnosed with AIDS are 50 years or older, according to 2007 data from the Florida Department of Health.

`IT'S TABOO'

But discussing sex isn't always easy among the senior set.

''We're from the old school, you never talk about sex. It's taboo,'' said Hy Posner, 85, of North Miami Beach. ``It's more wide open now, it's good.''
The JCC's health fair, dubbed ''A Sexy Affair,'' brought the risks of unprotected sex out into the open. In addition to Magill and a talk by Miami psychiatrist Dr. Marc Agronin on sexuality and aging, the fair featured a Claymation video, an animated 12-minute spot using clay figures as characters. A group of seniors from the center produced the video, which depicts a real-life, boy-meets-girl -- or in this case, Morty meets Ethel -- scenario. Two seniors find romance at a dance, and eventually discuss taking the relationship to the bedroom.

Neither have thought about the need to use condoms.

''I just read an article about infectious diseases, STDs and all that stuff,'' the female lead tells her friend over the phone. ``I read that the number of seniors with STDs is increasing.''

PRECAUTIONS

Julie Chesley, 83, one of the producers of the video, Sex and the Seniors, said she wanted to get the message out about taking precautions after reading about the rise of sexually transmitted diseases among those over 50.

''People were unaware you can get a disease at this stage in life,'' said Chesley, of Aventura. `If talking about AIDS helps one person, then our movie was a success.''

The group wrote the script, built the sets and sculpted the characters from clay, including a character who brags about her sexy cleavage and her dyed blonde locks. The animated figures openly talk about using condoms, how soon to have sex when dating, and getting checked for STDs.

The discussion opened some eyes. One 93-year-old woman, Rose, said she didn't realize women could contract STDs after menopause.

'You get these condo jockeys, they go out with a prostitute, they take care of all the ladies in the building, and then you have a problem,'' Chesley said. ``We laugh about this, but one of our members does have a certificate saying he is disease free. I can't tell you his name, because everyone will want to call him.''

Original link: http://www.globalaging.org/health/us/2009/safesex.htm

Antibiotic resistant gonorrhea on the rise

CARLY WEEKS
Globe and Mail February 3, 2009 at 9:13 AM EST

A strain of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea is growing in Ontario at an alarming pace, raising fears that the era of practising safe sex is on its way out, according to a new Canadian study.

Rates of gonorrhea resistant to antibiotics known as quinolones jumped from 4 per cent of cases in 2002 to 28 per cent in 2006, a study published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal reveals.

"The magnitude of the rate of resistance to quinolones is unusually high by any threshold reported in North America," the study said.

The findings add further woe to already-surging gonorrhea infection rates. From 1997 to 2007, infection rates more than doubled in Canada, from 15 to 35 cases for every 100,000 people.

Growing evidence suggests that gonorrhea, a highly adaptable infection, is becoming increasingly resistant to a variety of antibiotics, which has major implications for future control and treatment of the disease.

The rising incidence of quinolone-resistant gonorrhea confirms those worries.

Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted bacterial infection that, if untreated, can lead to pelvic pain and scarring of the fallopian tubes in women and of the urethra in men, contributing to infertility in both genders.

The increased infection rates raise concerns that people are abandoning safe-sex practices, which could have major and wide-reaching effects on the population's health, according to Susan Richardson, head of microbiology at the Hospital for Sick Children and senior author of the study.

"We are concerned that people are not taking the same precautions for the prevention of sexually transmitted infections that they could," said Dr. Richardson, who is also a consultant to the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion.

Quinolone-resistant gonorrhea was most commonly found in people over 30, the study found.

While other studies have shown quinolone-resistant gonorrhea to be most prevalent among men who have sex with men, this study found rates were split evenly with heterosexual men.

The resistant strain of gonorrhea could have spread through Ontario's population from people who have visited Asian countries where the disease is widespread, the study said.

Ontario may have higher rates of quinolone-resistant gonorrhea because it is the largest province and a major transit hub.

Other highly populated travel centres, such as Sydney, Australia, also have high rates of the antibiotic-resistant infection, according to an editorial published along with the study.

While the spike in quinolone-resistant cases appears to be greatest in Ontario, experts predict the trend will spread.

"The likelihood is that this will increase [in Ontario] and increase [in] every province too," Dr. Richardson said.

There are other treatments to battle gonorrhea, including a group of antibiotics known as cephalosporins that some countries including Canada now recommend instead of quinolones.

Some people, however, may be allergic to those medications, making their gonorrhea difficult to treat and raises their risk of health consequences, such as infertility.

But an even bigger issue is that some reports show that strains of gonorrhea resistant to cephalosporins are emerging in Pacific Rim countries, according to the editorial written by John Tapsall, who is with the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Sexually Transmitted Diseases at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney.

One of the biggest disadvantages of antibiotics is that diseases can mutate and become resistant to the medication, according to Dr. Tapsall.

Public health officials must take action to bring infection rates down to prevent more resistant strains from emerging and further limiting gonorrhea treatment options, he wrote.

"A recognition of these parallels [between quinolones and cephalosporins] has led to renewed calls for better control of gonococcal disease, including enhanced global surveillance of resistance and improved treatment."


Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090203.wlsex03/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home

Staid store shows sex sells

METRO NEWS SERVICES
February 17, 2009 05:20

New England’s staid Vermont Country Store, a mail-order staple for 64 years in Weston, Vt., has unleashed a flood of cancellation notices, irate letters and calls from some of its custom­ers over its latest line — vibrators, instructional sex videos and “pleasure gels” for older folks who need a little help.

The store’s 67-year-old proprietor Lyman Orton figures he got 600 letters, most of them critical. But the “intimate solutions” items have been big sellers, though the company won’t say which items are moving the fastest.

The catalog started by Orton’s father as a 12-page mailer in 1945 is now a $100-million-a-year business.

Seniors: Does sexuality age well?

Denial of sex among senior citizens increases the risks of isolation and STIs

The McGill Daily February 9, 2009
Scott Baker

With the release of the 2007 Canadian film Young People Fucking, the explicit presence of youth’s active sexuality was once again recast in the spotlight.

Overwhelmingly successful in causing a stir, this otherwise insignificant film once again stimulated discussion of one of our society’s favourite topics.

Finding its way into newspaper headlines, across dinner tables, and even in the halls of Parliament – the case in point of C-10 censorship bill debate about banning content against the public interest – this film discussed the controversial, omnipresent topic that has become inseparable from our media: young people fucking.

But what about old people? Are old people fucking?

“Of course they are!” was the exacerbated response of Michele Cauch, Executive Director of Sage Health Network and Sexual Health Promoter for Senior Citizens, to this question. “They always have; they always will.”

Cauch emphasized the need to dismantle the de-humanizing and problematic myth that old people “can’t” and “don’t” have sex.

“We need to recognize seniors’ sexuality, and stop refusing to acknowledge seniors as sentient beings, with feelings, emotions, and desires,” she said.

It appears that Cauch is correct. A 2007 study, published by the New England Journal of Medicine, confirms that not only are many senior citizens engaged in sex, but also that this is a steadily increasing trend since the study was first conducted in the 1970s.

The survey found that nearly three-quarters of citizens aged 57 to 64 years of age, more than half aged 65 to 74 years, and one-quarter aged 75 to 85 years were consummating at least once per year. Not surprisingly, these seniors are also feeling more positive and open about it.

The study did not investigate what is causing these rising numbers, but some have suggested that healthier senior citizen populations and longer life-spans, an increasing liberalization of the mentality surrounding sex, access to Viagra, and increasing rates of divorced, widowed, and other “single seniors” who have taken up dating once again, are potential factors. In fact, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, they are entering the online dating world faster than any other demographic.

However, these seemingly-positive statistics have very serious implications: the rate of incidence of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) in seniors has increased dramatically over the past ten years.

The numbers are alarming, with a 2002 study finding that 11.6 per cent of all reported HIV cases have been among persons age 50 years or older, and that new AIDS cases rose significantly faster in the over-50 population than in people under 40.

Furthermore, the typical problems surrounding STIs are compounded in seniors, whose sexuality is widely misunderstood and denied, whose understanding of the new complexities of sexual health is minimal, and whose immune systems are less able to deal with the effects of these infections.

This is why Jane P. Fowler, a senior citizen, HIV/AIDS prevention educator, and founder of “HIV Wisdom in Older Women,” implored that we acknowledge sex as a reality within the senior citizen population and face these issues head on.

Fowler is 73-years-old and lives with HIV. She contracted the disease after a divorce with her husband and a return to the dating scene in her senior years. She reflected on how she made the same mistake that she now works tirelessly to prevent other senior citizens from making.

“You never know about anybody’s sexual history but yours,” emphasized Fowler, who has freely given the past 14 years to educating seniors about the joys of a healthy sex life and dangers of unsafe sex.

A self-pronounced “typical 1950s good girl” who remained abstinent until marriage, Fowler described how the fifties mindset pervades in the sexual behaviours of single senior citizens, where concepts like “virgin” was a given, “sex” was forbidden, sexual education programs were a synonym for “abstinence,” and STIs were less than a myth.

“We could only whisper the word ‘rubber.’ ‘Condoms’ were not accepted; we wouldn’t talk about them, and used them exclusively for birth control,” said Fowler, adding that many senior women who have experienced menopause – and thus can no longer get pregnant – see the use of a condom as irrelevant.

Fowler insisted that recognition, acceptance, and education are the answers to this increasingly prevalence of STIs among the senior population, which must be recognized by their children, care-takers, and even the doctors.

Both Cauch and Fowler asserted that without recognizing our senior citizens’ sex lives, or rather their unsafe sex lives, the STI endemic will continue to get worse, especially as the baby boomer population enters this contingency.

Our grandmothers and grandfathers engaging in sex is an image that is so far from our understanding of sexuality that we refuse to acknowledge its existence. However, until we overcome our stigmas, quash our denial, and quell our gag reflex when we imagine wrinkled, gray-haired, denture-laden grandparent sex, we will be ignoring the dangers that threaten the most vulnerable segment of our society.

SageHealth Network on CBC's The Current

SageHealth Network Executive Director, Michele Cauch, was featured on the CBC Radio Show, The Current.

Sex and Seniors - Documentary
Across Canada, seniors are staying healthier and living longer. Add such drugs as Viagra to that mix and it's no surprise that they're more sexually active too. But that can create problems. The rate of HIV infections among Canadians over fifty has doubled in the last ten years. And with the number of seniors expected to double over the next 40 years, that's a significant public health challenge.

Susan Bell is a freelance documentary producer. She's spent some time with one senior citizen who's on a quest to find a boyfriend and she joined us from Montreal.

To listen to the recording, click here: http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2009/200901/20090130.html