Grandma's Still Got It: Sex Persists Into the 80s

Aug. 22, 2007 — -- Kay Mautz, a 69-year-old divorcee from LeGrange Park, Ill., says that she can't remember the last time she had sex.

"If I knew it was going to be the last time for a while, I wish I would have enjoyed it more," she said.

Mautz recalls having sex about once a week in her younger years. Now no longer sexually active, she attributes the decline to the fact that she no longer has a trustful relationship -- plus, she thinks men her age are "not particularly attractive."

But while many seniors like Mautz report a decline in sex as they get older, a new study shows that a significant number of older Americans are still having it -- in many cases, well into their 80s.

Yet doctors don't appear to be talking to their older patients about sex -- a trend that may have to change as more treatments for age-related sexual dysfunction become available.

"Sex among older adults is the last taboo in the United States," said Dr. Virginia Sadock, professor of psychiatry and director of the Program of Human Sexuality at New York University.

The study, released Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, surveyed 3,005 men and women in the United States over the age of 57. Researchers hoped to better understand the decline in sexual activity as one ages, as well as the differences between the sex lives of older men and older women.

What they found was that among adults 57 to 64 years of age, 73 percent reported recent sexual activity.

That number declined to 53 percent among those aged 65 to 74 and to 26 percent among those who were 75 to 85 years old.

But although the percentage of individuals who are sexually active decreases with age, the study highlights the fact that a "substantial number of men and women continue to engage in sexual activity."

Lead study author Dr. Stacey Lindau, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the University of Chicago, said a general lack of basic information on sexuality and the elderly prompted her to look for more information in this area.