Let’s talk about sex over 60
Let’s talk about sex over 60: condoms, casual partners and the ageing body.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen a dramatic rise in the rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among Australians aged 60 years and older. Both rates of gonorrhoea and chlamydia have risen significantly internationally.
STIs can be accompanied by some unpleasant symptoms and health complications, or lead to major chronic conditions, in the case of HIV. It’s therefore important STIs are diagnosed and treated, regardless of age.
To understand why STIs are on the rise, we need to know more about older people’s sexual and romantic relationships, their knowledge of STIs and safe sex, and the safe sex practices that they use. However, older people are routinely excluded from research on sex and relationships. Here’s what we know so far.
This article examines how sex, gender, and sexuality impact physical and mental wellbeing and how these issues shape, and are shaped by, the types of societies we build and value.