Study on Sex Behavior Later in Life

The first complete survey about older Americans’ sexual life reveals that many keep a fulfilling sexual activity even past their 80’s.
The study was composed of over three thousand American adults with ages ranging from 85 to 57. This research concluded that more than seventy-five percent of the adults surveyed were sexually active, with a large portion involved in various types of sexual acts.
The study also found that the frequency for sexual encounters decreases with age and that sexual troubles increment with age. But, the elderly that are healthy do seem to maintain a higher rate of sexual arousal combined with a higher sexual intercourse rate.
Stacy Tessler Lindau, from the University of Chicago, leader of the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, said “There’s a wide perception that the elderly are not as mesmerized in sex as younger people.” Stacy Tessler added “Our research demonstrates that’s simply not the case. Older people value sexuality as an integral part of everyday existence.”
Georgeanne Patmios from the National Institute of Aging, who funds the research, said “This investigation shows a different side to the lives of older Americans that signals an uncharted vitality in sexuality.”
The research was able to establish a connection between health and sex, because the healthiest persons were having the highest proportions of sexual intercourse. The results signal that a vibrant sex life may also contribute to a healthy life, the researchers claimed.
Political conservatives have established a low funding scheme to seldom study the diverse aspects of sexual life among the many age groups of the Americans. Only small and limited research has given clues as to the sexual behavior of the older Americans, but, this is the first nationwide survey that shows a detailed study of this fast growing part of the population.
The survey was done by personal interviews with three thousand Americans chosen at random from July 2005 to March 2006.
Approximately, fourteen percent of women and twenty eight percent of men mentioned that sex was important. Sexual behavior was explained as having voluntary sexual relations within the past year with someone else.
The percentage of people having sexual intercourse did decrease a bit with age. At the ages of seventy five and eighty five, sexual acts were lower in frequency in seventeen percent of women and thirty nine percent of men.
Vaginal intercourse was the most usual sexual activity. The research also discovered that a large portion also performed oral sex and masturbation.
Older men were having more sexual intercourses than women, but, some researchers claimed that is because women live longer lives than men, offering the remaining men a better chance to meet a larger quantity of available older women for having sex.
The study did find that almost half percent of the elderly that remained active were having at least one type of sex problem. Over forty percent of women were having a decreased sexual desire with over thirty percent reporting vaginal dryness, and over thirty percent of men having problems to achieve an erection.
Now, with the availability of medications like Viagra, the research suggests that the elderly will greatly benefit from the treatment with this product, offering a more satisfactory sex life and overall health of the elderly population.