Women Over
50 & STDs
Older Women Enjoy Sex Too
There seems
to be a widely held belief that as a woman gets older, her sex drive
diminishes. This is now understood to be
no longer necessarily true, especially with the advent of Viagra and other
stimulants for those “over a certain age”.
Along with
the advent of helpful additives, comes a rise in sexually transmitted diseases
amongst older people. Venereal diseases
are spreading more than ever among senior citizens. The US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention reported that about 10 percent of the total AIDS cases in the US are
made up of people over the age of 50.
HIV is increasing among those in their 60’s and 70’s and it has
also been reported that HIV cases have risen 500 percent among Senior
Citizens. At this time, nearly 27
percent of those living with HIV/AIDS in the US are 50 plus.
Viagra,
truly, has been increased the sex lives of those over 50 – especially men with
erectile dysfunction. It’s a very effect
way of dealing with a biological dysfunction in men; however there are some
very serious situations resulting from this explosion of sexuality.
For the
most part, those who are considered Senior Citizens today, didn’t “come of age”
when sex education was being taught in schools and today are, more often than
not, uninformed about HIV/AIDS and how to protect themselves from this disease
and other venereal diseases.
Today’s
so-called “modern values” are not the ones people over 50 grew up with. Consequently, the education is different.
As a rule, people age 50 and older have been married longer and have
found it unnecessary to wear a condom.
Now, in these times, those same people, having suffered the loss of a
partner or having divorced, are finding themselves back in the dating scene and
are unfamiliar with or not used to protecting themselves against possible infection
and std’s.
These days
a lot of older men date more than one woman at a time and since older women can
“no longer get pregnant”, they see no need to use any type of what is
considered birth control, i.e., condoms.
In fact, some aging “baby boomers” still do drugs and are contracting HIV
through intravenous drug use.
All
sexually transmitted diseases are preventable, and condoms and the pre-testing of sexual partners are recommended for all sexual encounters for sexually active people of any age.