Sexuality Need Not Fade With Age
What matters is how you age, not that you do

(HealthDay News) -- Getting older doesn't have to mean the end of a satisfying, fulfilling sex life.

Aging well, of course, can help.

"It's definitely whether you're elderly or 'wellderly' that makes a difference," Dr. Virginia Sadock, director of the human sexuality program at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, told HealthDay. "Illness and medications make a difference in sex lives," she added.

"Don't assume that because you're older, your sex life has to be gone," she said. "If you're healthy and connected to someone, and you've had a pretty good sex life when you're younger, then you can have a pretty good sex life in old age."

Problems and conditions that could cause difficulty with sex include arthritis, a loss of libido, erectile dysfunction, a lack of vaginal lubrication, chronic pain, heart disease and incontinence, according to the National Institute on Aging.

In the study, which was published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, more than two-thirds of men between 57 and 85 years old and 42 percent of women that age said they'd had sex in the past year.

"Healthy people can have reasonably satisfying sexual health for most of their lives," the study's lead author, Edward Laumann, a sociology professor at the University of Chicago, told HealthDay. "There are challenges that arise, but it's not aging, per se, that's the issue.

"A decline in sexuality may be the canary in the mineshaft," he said. "Sexual problems may manifest before diabetes and high blood pressure."

Commenting on the study's findings, Laumann said it's possible that more older women wanted to have sex but had a hard time finding men their age to partner with.

The study also found:

• Urinary tract problems were frequently cited as causes of sexual dysfunction and a decreased interest in sex, for both men and women.
• Mental health issues affected both men's and women's interest in sex.
• Alcohol increased women's interest in sex, as well as their pleasure. Drinking alcoholic beverages did not affect men's sexual interest or pleasure.
• In older men, difficulties in a relationship decreased interest in sex and the ability to achieve orgasm.
• "Sexual health is a harbinger of physical and mental health, and it plays an important role in the quality of life," Laumann noted. "Older people don't just drop out of the picture. In general, if you're healthy, you can be sexually active."

On the Web

To learn more about sexuality and aging, visit HelpGuide.org.

SOURCES: HealthDay News ; Edward Laumann, Ph.D., George Herbert Mead distinguished service professor of sociology, University of Chicago; Virginia A. Sadock, M.D., psychiatrist and director, program of human sexuality, NYU Langone Medical Center, and professor, New York University School of Medicine, New York City; August 2008, Journal of Sexual Medicine; U.S. National Institute on Aging (www.nia.nih.gov)
Author: Serena Gordon
Publication Date: Sept. 30, 2009
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