Never Too Old for Sex
July 28, 2016
Medical Xpress — Despite societal perceptions that older adults’ love lives are ancient history, many seniors are anything but retired from sex, a new study co-authored by a BGU researcher suggests.
Prof. Galit Nimrod
Many seniors consider sexual activity essential to their well-being, happiness and quality of life, according to the study conducted by Prof. Galit Nimrod of BGU’s Department of Communication Studies and her research partner Prof. Liza Berdychevsky of the University of Illinois.
A sense of impending mortality inspired some older adults to cast aside sexual inhibitions or stereotypes that constrained their behavior when they were younger, and to begin exploring new activities or aspects of their sexuality.
The researchers analyzed a full year of conversations about sex that occurred on 14 leading online communities that target people age 50 and over. The study sample included English-speaking websites based in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
“Although some older adults reported abstaining from sexual activity due to health conditions or loss of interest, others refused to renounce sexual activity,” the researchers say. And some of these vivacious seniors are finding their golden years to be an optimal time for exploring new dimensions of their sexuality.
“Their health problems or society’s ageist stereotypes that portray seniors as asexual were not going to become excuses to give up on life or sex.”
Ageist stereotypes that older adults are — or should be — asexual frequently encroached on seniors’ sex lives, the researchers found. In the online forums, some seniors recounted incidents of health care workers dismissing their concerns about their sexual health or functioning.
Yet how to continue enjoying one’s sexuality in later life was also a popular discussion topic.
“Learning to appreciate what they had — whether it was enjoying foreplay in lieu of intercourse or focusing on quality instead of quantity — enabled some older adults to adjust their sexual expectations to the realities of aging,” the researchers say.
Read more on the Medical Xpress website >>
Stories Like This
