With a documented, “rapid” increase in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among older Americans, there’s cause for concern about unsafe sex practices happening in retirement communities around the country, says a recent New York Times opinion piece.
Both chlamydia infections and syphilis diagnoses rose substantially among seniors aged 65 and older between 2007 and 2011, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The numbers are similar to STD trends in the 20 to 24-year-old age group, notes Ezekiel J. Emanuel, an oncologist and vice provost at the University of Pennsylvania, and there are a few reasons why.
“First, retirement communities and assisted living facilities are becoming like college campuses,” he writes. “They cram a lot of similarly aged people together, and when they do, things naturally happen.”
Another factor: older people are living longer and healthier, allowing them to remain sexually active late into their lives. More than half of men and about 40% of women aged 60 and older report being sexually active, says Emanual citing a National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior.
“But while they are having a lot of sex, seniors didn’t seem to get the safe sex memo…