Social Support
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Contrary to a popular myth, sexual desire does not wane after the age of 50; most older adults continue to be sexually active, enjoying close personal and sexual relationships with a partner. A 1998 National Council on Aging survey of 1,300 seniors found that half were having sex at least once a month, and nearly 40% wanted more. Masters and Johnson cited significant physiological and psychological value in continuing sexual activity among older adults. Every person has normal desires to be loved, touched, and have sexual relations. While the sex drive may diminish in some with aging and chronic disease, it remains an important part of life. Among older males, impotence or ‘‘erectile dysfunction,’’ the inability to sustain an erection sufficient for sexual intercourse, can now be treated through pharmacotherapy. More and more people in their sixties and seventies, living longer and healthier, are newly single through divorce from, or death of, their partners, and are once more dating, beginning new relationships, and participating in some kind of sexual activity. Others may be in monogamous relationships with a partner who engages in risky behavior without their knowledge. Unfortunately, knowledge of the risk of unprotected sex and safer‐sex practices among older adults is much less than that of sexually active persons in their late teens and early twenties. This circumstance can place unwary older adults at risk of acquiring deadly diseases like HIV and hepatitis as well as other sexually transmitted diseases. The older generation has never been targeted for sex education with the exception of Viagra, or identified as a risk group; many geriatric doctors are not even looking for HIV among their patients. Older adults and their health care providers rarely discuss sexual behaviors, given the stigma that society attaches to risky behaviors and HIV. This is particularly dangerous as HIV‐related illnesses can be difficult to distinguish from typical age‐ related health problems. Older adults typically believe that HIV only affects younger people and that they are free to engage in unprotected heterosexual (now without worry of pregnancy) or homosexual sex. Sexual activity is the most common cause of HIV infection in older adults. One study found that people over 50 are only one-sixth as likely to use condoms and #
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008
one-fifth as likely to get tested for HIV as those in their twenties. Once exposed to HIV, older women may also be more vulnerable to infection due to physical changes with menopause. Vaginal walls become dry and thin, and can lead to abrasions and tears, increasing risk of infection with unprotected sex. Safer sex activities Before becoming sexually intimate, older adults should consult their doctor about the risks of acquiring HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases, and also talk frankly about this with their partners. Most sexual activity carries some risk, which can be reduced by making it more difficult for your partner’s blood or sexual fluid to enter your bod
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