Grandma and Grandpa Still Getting it On, Study Says

By Anastacia Mott Austin

A new study published in "The New England Journal of Medicine this week shows us that older Americans are still doing the wild thing, well into their later years.

The research involved two-hour face-to-face interviews with 3,005 men and women from age 57 to 85. It is the first larger-scale research project to look at sexuality in older people.

"People are living longer," said Dr. Stacy Tessler Lindau, lead author of the study. Dr. Lindau is a professor of gynecology and geriatrics at the University of Chicago. "Many people have higher expectations for what aging should be like, and we spend billions on treating erectile problems. Yet we have no baseline data on sexuality in later life."

The researchers discovered that among married or partnered seniors aged 57-74, about 75% reported being sexually active, meaning they’d been sexually intimate with a partner during the previous 12 months. Two-thirds of those surveyed said they were having intercourse about 2-3 times per month. That number tended to decline after the age of 75, according to the study.

"This study suggests that we should dispel the myth that sex inevitably deteriorates with age," said Lindau to reporters. Lindau added that the study should also dismiss the idea that "older people aren’t sexually active or don’t care about sexuality."

In fact, the majority of those surveyed reported that sex is at least "somewhat important" in their lives.

The study also revealed the discrepancy between the number of older adults who are sexually active and those who discuss the issue with their doctors. While over half of adults aged 54-85 engage in some type of sexual activity, only 38 percent of men and 22 percent of women had talked about it with their primary physicians.

Experts agree that the study may open channels of communication about sex between elderly Americans and their doctors.

Dr. Winnie Suen, A Cambridge Health Alliance geriatrician, thinks the study is an important one. "The misconception is that people at this age shouldn’t like sex. They can’t enjoy it. They’re too old. They can’t do it," said Suen to reporters. "It’s a big taboo overall about talking about it."

The researchers of the recent study might disagree about the taboo part. They found their subjects more than willing to open up about their sexuality. In fact, only 2-7 percent of the subjects refused to talk about sex. "Participants were more likely to refuse questions about income than they were about sex," said Lindau to reporters.

Dr. Richard Suzman of the National Institute of Aging, which sponsored the study, told the press, "[The study] breaks new ground in social and behavioral research. Its portrait of this aspect of older Americans’ lives suggests a previously uncharacterized vitality and interest in sexuality that carries well into advanced age."