The Times, They Are A-Changin'

New York Times
February 14, 2007

The Greatest Generation Learns About Great Safe Sex
By COREY KILGANNON   

The sex educators had come to a Queens housing complex to discuss condoms and foreplay and sexually transmitted diseases.

Those assembled were told that their demographic was showing increases in sexual activity and an accompanying rise in promiscuity, homosexuality and H.I.V. infection.

As the teacher, Monique Binford, delved into an unexpurgated discussion covering issues from vaginal dryness to Viagra, one student’s cane clattered to the floor, another student adjusted his hearing aid and a third fidgeted in her orthopedic shoes. By the time Ms. Binford got around to describing a safe sexual act involving Saran Wrap, a woman shouted, “Enough, already!” and the room erupted in laughter.

The sex educators had news for this class of 40 people in their 70s and 80s, just in time for Valentine’s Day: Older folks are friskier than ever, and it’s never too late to learn about safe sex.

Sexually speaking, said Norm Sherman, who organized the presentation, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

The class last Wednesday, for residents of what is known as a “naturally occurring retirement community” at the Queensview and North Queensview co-op complexes in Long Island City, was run by Selfhelp Community Services, a nonprofit agency that provides services for the elderly across New York City.

The group’s leaders said they started sex-education courses in January after noticing an increase in sexual activity among their elderly clients, something they attribute to the popularity of Viagra and testosterone supplements as well as women shedding the idea that sex is shameful. Along with the increase in sexual activity at senior residences, nursing homes and assisted living facilities, there are increased complications because of lack of knowledge, said Becky Bigio, another of the educators.

A recent survey of people 45 and older, conducted by AARP, reported a sharp increase over the past several years of men using sex-enhancing drugs, and observed a corresponding “re-awakening” among women, who said their own sexual satisfaction had been enhanced. The study concluded that health care providers and patients were in need of sex education.

Indeed, not one of the students raised a hand when Ms. Binford asked who had been to a class before where someone had demonstrated how to put on a condom.

Ms. Bigio said many older people experience problems when resuming sexual activity after a long layoff, as when widows begin new relationships after long marriages that had perhaps slowed down sexually. Then there are sexually transmitted diseases spread by newly promiscuous Viagra takers, often undetected by doctors presuming that older patients are not sexually active.

“We feel this is getting to be an area you can no longer ignore,” Ms. Bigio told the group. In her presentation, Ms. Binford said she had also seen an uptick in homosexual activity among the elderly, and that more and more older people were being diagnosed with H.I.V., citing the recent case of an 82-year-old woman in the Bronx.

{To read the rest of this interesting article, click here.]