Sex and the Seventy Year Olds

There are more couples over 70 years old having sex – and enjoying it – than ever before, says a survey for the British Medical Journal.
1500 people have been asked by Swedish researchers about their sex lives, over a 30 year period (that’s the research that was over a thirty year period, not the questioning of the same people !)

The number of people who said they had sex increased as well as the number of women claiming to be “fulfilled”, shall we say. An “expert” in the UK says older people today grew up in more sexually liberated times and though there are many studies about sexual "problems" to do with the older age groups there is little research about "normal" sexual behaviour later in life.

So the scientists from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden got to work interviewing 70-year olds about periods of their life from the 1970’s onwards.

Their results showed that the number of 70 year olds reporting to have sexual relations had risen quite dramatically, by 52% and whilst the numbers of men reporting “problems” increased, so did the satisfaction factor in women.
"We still have this stereotype of elderly people with their bath chairs and canes, staggering around, who couldn't possibly be having sex - but that isn't the case " says Dr Petra Boynton of University College London. (Not sure where she has been looking, however...)

Now, I am not disputing these statistics or the research at all, but isn’t it a generally accepted fact that when anyone is questioned about their sex life, they tend to bend the truth slightly?

Or perhaps this is not true at all.
I hope that it's not and I hope that people over 70 are enjoying their lives more in whatever way they choose to.
I just wonder how many people really are interested in these statistics, and more to the point , that the survey was not paid for by NHS money !


Comments

Nicola Slade said…
Can't comment on the figures but when I first submitted my novel, Scuba Dancing, I was told that 'no publisher would touch a novel featuring OAPs having sex!'
Luckily Transita Ltd did just that and my romantic comedy was published a year or so back. It struck a chord among readers as it's about a group of lonely people, not all of them older, who form an unorthodox social group and have a lot of fun.
And yes, there is a seventy year old who has sex - and enjoys it too!

Nicky
www.nicolaslade.com
Lexia257 said…
Thanks for your comment, Nicola. Congratuations on your published novel - I will check it out (though I am not near the seventy mark myself, yet, I am sure I am classed as an "older" person by many!)I am sure there is plenty call for work of this nature to be enjoyed by young AND old.
According to a TV advert that is showing currently, the real secret to sexual contentment as we get older is "Mum" deodorant !! :)
Nicola Slade said…
I'm not seventy yet either, Lexia but I know plenty who are. And the book covers all ages.

I like the card/cartoon that has an old woman calling downstairs: Come up here and make mad, passionate love to me.
And the old chap at the foot of the stairs saying: Make up your mind, it's one or the other. !

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