Sex over 50: Experts say older lovers need sex ed to avoid STIs

More and more people over the age of 50 are being diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections — a development that  has a medical journal urging doctors to be more vigilant when treating older  patients.  The Student BMJ, an international journal published  for medical students, says doctors need to ensure that when they are diagnosing  older individuals, they aren’t ruling out sexually transmitted infections based  on age alone.

“Sexually transmitted infections are not high on your list of differential  diagnoses — but increasing evidence indicates that they should be,” as cases of  common infections have more than doubled in people aged 50 to 90 years old, the  editorial says.

According to one study, 80 per cent of the people in that age group are  sexually active. One of the authors of the editorial, Rachel von Simson, a medical student at  King’s College London, said in an email that despite the dramatic rise in  infections, there isn’t enough awareness and more education is necessary.  Von Simson says that it shouldn’t be more difficult to educate older  adults.   “Whilst we have a huge evidence base on what works to educate young people  about sex and sexually transmitted infections and we have had lots of campaigns  over the years dedicated towards them, we don’t have any evidence base on what  will work with older adults,” she said.

“If all the campaigns older adults see are targeted at young adults, it is  not surprising that they might take from that that they are not at risk.”   At the Calgary Sexual Health Centre a program called Seniors A GoGo is helping bring the message to older  people in the city, according to the centre’s spokeswoman.

Pam Krause said that through monologues on sexuality led by seniors and  education seminars, Seniors A GoGo is able to educate people who may not have  had sex ed when they were in school.  ”The first year what was interesting was (the seniors) talked about sexuality  in a really, really broad way about it being about relationships and love and  not being lonely,” Krause said. “Then the seniors themselves said the second  year, ‘I think we actually need to kick it up a notch.’ “

From there the sessions for Seniors A GoGo involved discussions about condoms  and the dangers of unprotected sex. ”It’s funny, but it is shocking sometimes how uncomfortable people when  thinking about older adults and sexuality. So there’s this immediate barrier,”  Krause said. “You can talk to youth about a lot of stuff . . . but as soon as  you address anything with older adults, for whatever reason our culture is ill  prepared to deal with the fact that people over 50″ are still having sex, she  said.

Krause said that previously there were few resources for seniors making the  transition after the death of a spouse or after moving into a seniors’ home.  Seniors A GoGo helps by opening up a conversation with experts and other seniors  so they get the right information. Practicing safe sex is especially important for older people because of their  general decline in immunity, von Simson said. If more seniors are aware of the  consequences of STIs and more doctors are on the lookout for them, the  infections can be caught earlier and are less likely to cause serious harm.

Von Simson said that more research is required so that the medical community  can get a better handle on STI rates in older people, and how they can be better  educated