Sexual Activity And Sexual Desire At The Age Over 45

Introduction and objectives Gerontologists and other medical experts generally agree that continued sexual interest and activity can be therapeutic for older men and women. The aim of this paper is to present how sexual activities and sexual desires change in men and women 45-54, 55-64, and 65-74 years old and what are their determinants. Sexual activity was measured with the frequency of sexual intercourse and sexual desire with the occurrence of the lack of desire in the last year. Methods The analyses of the presentation are based on combined national follow-up sex surveys in Finland in 1992, and in 1999. The total number of respondents in the age group 45-74 was 1504. The analyses were conducted by cross tabulations, correlations and regression analysis. Results At the age of 70 three quarters of men but only a half of women had a steady sexual partner. The implication was that aging men were sexually more active than aging women. The aging men and women considered their couple relationship as happy as younger ones and they were also as happy with the physical closeness and touching that they had experienced with their partner. Aging women did not value sex as much in their relationship as did the younger women. Aging men and men in the relationships of long duration were able to keep the quality of sex as high as the younger men but aging women considered their intercourse less pleasant and they experienced orgasms less frequently in their intercourse. Conclusions Results indicate that sexual activity was highly related to health and partner status among elderly. The age as such did not have much explanatory value for sexual desire. Illnesses had an impact on decreasing frequency of intercourse by decreasing sexual desire and by causing sexual disorders.

Conflict of Interest: None disclosed
Financial Support/Funding: Ministry Of Social Affairs And Health In Finland
Sydney, Australia, April 2007