Age doesn’t quash sex life, study finds
Many people maintain rich, active sex lives well into their 80s, according to the first detailed examination of sexuality among older Americans.
The nationally representative survey of more than 3,000 U.S. adults ages 57 to 85 found that more than half to three-quarters of those questioned remain sexually active, with a significant proportion engaging in frequent and varied sexual behavior.
Sexual problems do increase with age, and the rate of sexual activity fades somewhat, the survey found. But interest in sex remains high and the frequency remains surprisingly stable among the physically able who have partners.
“There’s a popular perception that older people aren’t as interested in sex as younger people,” said Stacy Tessler Lindau of the University of Chicago, who led the study being published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. “Our study shows that’s simply not true. Older people value sexuality as an important part of life.”
The survey found a close link between sex and health, with healthier people reporting the highest rates of sexual activity. In addition to supporting the well-known idea that illness can interfere with sex, that finding suggests that a healthy sex life may itself help keep people vibrant, the researchers said.
“Individuals who remain sexually active gain the benefit of the physical exercise that comes with sex,” Lindau said. “It’s also possible the hormones – the endorphins released by orgasms – give a general sense of well-being that could be beneficial. The psychological benefits of being loved and cared for may also trickle over to physical health.”
For the study, researchers conducted face-to-face interviews with a randomly selected sample of 3,005 Americans from July 2005 to March 2006.
“We found people to be grateful to have an opportunity to discuss these issues,” said Lindau, noting that researchers achieved an unusually high 75 percent response rate from those they approached.
About 28 percent of men and about 14 percent of women said sex was very important, and about three-quarters of those with partners reported being sexually active, which is about equivalent to what previous research had found for people in their 40s and 50s. Being sexually active was defined as having had mutually voluntary sexual contact with another person within the past 12 months.
The proportion of those having sex did decline somewhat with age. By ages 75 to 85, it was down to 39 percent of men and 17 percent of women.
Among those who remained sexually active, frequency also fell somewhat with age. But even among the oldest age group, 54 percent of those who were sexually active reported having sex at least two to three times per month and 23 percent reported having sex once a week or more.
The most common sexual activity was vaginal intercourse. But the survey found a significant proportion reported engaging in oral sex, both giving and receiving, as well as masturbation.
Mirroring their younger counterparts, elderly men reported more sexual activity than women, but researchers said that was largely because women live longer than men, giving the surviving men more opportunities to have sex than women.