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Sex After 60 -- Why Not? Sexy Seniors
Joe Volz



Many seniors are physically healthy and active, including
sexually. "People don't lose their passion," one senior says.
"They don't lose wanting to be held, to be touched, having
physical contact with another human being."
Seniors having sex is perfectly normal, says Beverly Whipple,
PhD, a professor of nursing at Rutgers University and president
of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and
Therapists, even though the idea may be foreign or even repulsive
to younger people. "We grew up thinking that anyone over 65 who
is interested in sex must be a dirty old man or woman."

But these days, people are living longer and staying healthier. A
woman's life expectancy is now 81, and a man's 76, according to
the U.S. Census Bureau. So it makes sense that they would
continue to pursue activities they have enjoyed throughout life
-- including sex.

Not all seniors continue to have sex, of course. But the
healthier a senior is, the more likely he or she has a healthy
sex life as well, according to a sexuality survey of nearly 1,400
adults aged 45 and older commissioned in 1999 by AARP, formerly
the American Association of Retired Persons. Sexual activity, the
survey concludes, "declines with age for both men and women as
health declines or they lose partners."

Among those with sexual partners, 25% of those 75 and older said
they have sex once a week or more often, as do more than 60% of
respondents aged 45 to 59. And 70% of all those with partners
said they have sex at least once a month.

Sixty-seven percent of the men and 57% of the women also said a
satisfying sexual relationship was important to their quality of
life. And as the years go by, older people said they still view
their partner as romantic, physically attractive, or both. In
both age groups, two out of three respondents who had sexual
partners said they were either "extremely" or "somewhat"
satisfied with their sex lives.


Joe Volz, 65, of Washington, D.C., a newspaper reporter for 40
years, wrote for The New York Daily News (where he was a Pulitzer
Prize finalist), The Washington Star, and The Washington Daily
News. For the past decade, as a syndicated writer for 200
newspapers, he has covered issues of interest to older Americans.


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