The New England Journal of Medicine report of a study into the sex lives of 3,005 older men and women in the age range 57-85, published in August, has caused a stir because of the behaviour of people deemed to be old enough to know better.

The fact that more than a quarter reported having sex in the previous year comes as no surprise to people involved in the care of the elderly.  A nurse administrator from a Vermont assisted living centre agreed that she had experienced many instances of senior sex.  Young relatives find elderly persons in compromising poses and senior citizens spend the night in other rooms and are discoverd in the morning.

She now asks potential new residents if they are sexually active and trains staff on the subject of elderly sex, plus the need for testing for sexually transmitted diseases including HIV.  While the subject is no surprise to health professionals it is very seldom talked about.  The survey also highlighted the fact that some elderly people are not sexually active, and the proportion increases with age as would be expected.  What is important is the variety of sexual activity.

 Also as expected men remain sexually active longer generally than women and the reasons for this are many and varied.  Many women grew up in a different age that had very different attitudes to sex and are glad to have finished with it.  Men often remain sexually active into the 80s and 90s and many of them have been helped to accomplish this with medicines such as Viagra, Cialis and Levitra.  Others retire from sex as they age.