According to a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, sexual activity among older adults is more common than you probably thought. The frequency of sexual contact, not surprisingly, declined steadily among older study participants, and men reported having sex slightly more often than women in each age group. Still, at least among older adults who were married or living with a partner, half to two-thirds of both men and women and of each age group studied reported engaging in sex more than two or three times per month.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the study showed tremendous variability by gender, age and health status. For example, older men are more likely to be married than women of the same age, and the disparity increases widely with age. Nearly 85% of men aged 57 to 64 were married or living with a partner (compared to 70% of women in the same age bracket); Less than 40% of women aged 75 to 85 were married or living with a partner (compared to 72% of men in the same age group). Half of women in that 75-85 age group were widows; less than 20% of men were widowers.

Seniors who reported less-frequent sexual contact tended to be in poorer health, and many listed specific causes for their reduced sexuality. About a quarter of men and nearly half of women reported a lack of interest in sex; those figures remained surprisingly consistent across age groups. One much more marked difference between the genders appeared in response to questions about sex being pleasurable: less than 7% of men indicated that as a problem, while nearly a quarter of women said the same thing. Conversely, more than a quarter of older men reported anxiety about performance, while only about 10% of women listed that as a problem.

The report, titled “A Study of Sexuality and Health among Older Adults in the United States,” was the work of physicians, sociologists and researchers at the University of Chicago, its School of Medicine, and the University of Toronto Department of Medicine. But why would doctors and scientists be so interested in finding out about sexuality among older adults? The study notes that older adults are often sexually active and have a relatively high incidence of sexual problems. Seniors are often reluctant to report sexual problems to, or seek help from, their physicians. The result, speculates the report, has been that treatable sexual problems have gone undetected, and that the quality of life for older adults may have been unnecessarily diminished. This study may help change the expectations of the medical community, society generally and the seniors themselves.

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