Grannies gone wild? New study examines sex lives of senior citizens

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Over half of all men and nearly one-third of women over the age of 70 are still enjoying active sex lives, with many of them frequently engaging in intercourse, according to new research from the University of Manchester and NatCen Social Research.
While the findings are likely to make those of us who would rather not envision our grandparents “getting it on” a little uncomfortable, it’s a landmark study, being the first to examine the sexual health of individuals over the age of 80.
The research also found that overall health and conflicting partnership factors were more closely linked to a decline in sexual activity and functioning, not just due to increasing age, they added.
Lead author Dr. David Lee, a research fellow at the University of Manchester School of Social Sciences, and his colleagues used data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) in their research. Their study has been published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior.
“We hope our findings improve public health by countering stereotypes and misconceptions about late-life sexuality, and offer older people a reference against which they may relate their own experiences and expectations,” explained Dr. Lee.
“Our ongoing research is also highlighting the diversity of late-life sexualities, and trying to impose youthful norms of sexual health on older people would be over-simplistic and even unhelpful,” he continued, adding that it was “important” that healthcare professionals become “more open about discussing sexual health with older people.”
A total of 7,000 people responded to the ELSA questionnaire, and all but three percent of them declined to answer questions about their sexual activities and issues. The study discovered that chronic health conditions and poor self-rated health appeared to have the most obvious negative impacts on the sexual health of men compared to women.
Issues most frequently reported by sexually active females related to becoming sexually aroused (32 percent) and achieving orgasm (27 percent). Males, on the other hand, reported that most of their problems were related to erectile difficulties (39 percent).
Older men were more concerned about their sexual activities and function than women, the study authors found, and those worries tended to become more common with increasing age. Sexually-active women said that they were less dissatisfied with their overall sex lives than men, and were also less likely to report decreasing levels of dissatisfaction with increasing age.
The study wasn’t just about sex, however. It also revealed that many people in their seventies and eighties showed affection to their partners in other ways, with 31 percent of men and 20 percent of women reporting frequently kissing or engaging in heavy petting. Among those who reported having any type of sexual activity over the past three months, just one percent of men and 10 percent of women said that they help obligated to do so.
“The fact this is the first time that people over 80 years old have been included in this kind of research highlights how often the public health needs of older people, including sexual health, are ignored or overlooked,” said Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK.
“With an ageing population it is important that providers of sexual health services understand the needs of older people in both clinical settings and when developing information and advice,” she added. “These recent findings now need to be used to improve sexual health advice and information for older people.”
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