SEX. YES SEX! I have hesitated to write about sex for fear of embarrassing my children but alas here I am writing about S E X.
I read with interest that STDs are on the rise in the Senior Class crowd. I know. My reaction is the same…..SAY WHAT? REALLY? NOOOOOOOO, CAN’T BE TRUE!
According to the Center for Disease Control, among our senior citizen population, especially in ‘homes’, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are spreading like wildfire. “BETWEEN 2010 AND 2014 among adults 65 and over: Chlamydia infections increased by about 52 percent. Syphilis infections rose by about 65 percent.”*
Why the trend? Sex enhancing drugs for men and hormones for women (that may be the long or the short of it). As a spouse may sadly become a single again and find themselves in the over 70 age group, they are having more sex. No one thinks they should wear condoms and so it goes. STDs rise and no one is the wiser.*
Apparently, Medicare offers free screenings of STDs but Medicare recipients scoff at the notion that they may pick something up!*
But what about couples who are still married happily and together and haven’t reached the age when ‘homes’ are necessary. They have not yet gone back into the ‘single, swinging group.’ Are we who are part of the happily married, retired or soon to be retired group still having sex?
Yes and No. I am going to guess that some couples are and some couples are not. Some have desire and others don’t. Sorry…..but I haven’t done an in-depth study.
Sex is very personal, of course, but it is part of who we are. Sex was and always will be important. It’s not everything of course. All I’m saying is that those Seniors who are now in Senior homes may know something we don’t! Congratulations to them. They better, however, get to a Doctor.
My husband wants me to say that this blog is NOT a story about us. Understood.
Leigh
*(Paula Derrow, Seniors, Sex and STD’s, BERKELEY WELLNESS, Univ. of California)
THE SENIOR CLASS 