Sexually transmitted diseases are increasing rapidly among seniors – and the pandemic may be to blame

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Sexually transmitted infections such as syphilis and gonorrhea are increasing faster among older people than any other age group in America, according to new data.

Figures from the nonprofit health research organization FAIR Health show that between 2020 and 2023, STI diagnoses increased by 23.8 percent among those over 65 and 16.2 percent among those aged 55 to 64, while they decreased among those under 25.

This reflects previous data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and from around the world and indicates a long-term trend that cannot be explained solely by changes in testing rates or the end of Covid lockdowns.

Experts believe this increase is due to older people being more sexually active than ever before, but less likely to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases or take preventive measures.

“Many health care providers and society mistakenly assume that older adults don’t have sex, don’t want to have sex, and can’t have sex,” said Matthew Lee Smith, a 45-year-old public health professor at Texas A&M University who studies sexual behavior in older adults. The Independent.

Smith’s research found that older Americans, on average, are less informed and educated about sexually transmitted diseases and their risks. This is likely due in part to the fact that they received less formal sex education during childhood.

“Good girls didn’t do that and bad girls did that – that’s how we were taught sex half a century ago,” said Joan Price, an 80-year-old sex educator from California and author of Naked in our age: Talking out loud about sex in old age.

“Seniors are having more sex; they are more sexually active. They have found ways to deal with the challenges and they also feel seen and heard, which was not the case in our society before.”

“But it also has a negative impact on them. Their doctors don’t even think to ask them if they should get tested when they go for their routine checkups,” Price said.

“Many of them start dating again after a divorce or the death of a spouse, even though they haven’t dated for 40, 50 years. They thought pregnancy was all they had to worry about.”

In March, CDC data showed that diagnoses of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis in people over 55 had more than doubled between 2012 and 2022, with syphilis in particular increasing sevenfold.

Similar trends have been reported in China, Korea, Kenya and Botswana, as well as in the UK, where the number of sexually transmitted diseases among people over 45 increased by 22 percent between 2014 and 2019.

A major reason for this is that people are staying healthy and energetic longer than ever before, Price said, making it easier to maintain or start an active sex life.

However, she also argued that the growing culture of sex education for seniors and the rise of the Internet and online dating have given older people a new sense of confidence and opportunity, despite the lingering prejudices of the younger generation.

Smith also pointed to the increasing availability of medical treatments to improve sexual function – such as Viagra for erectile dysfunction or hormone therapy for the menopause – as well as the large number of older people living together in retirement homes and villages.

However, seniors exploring this new territory often rely on beliefs, instincts and knowledge acquired many decades ago – especially if they have just come out of a long-term monogamous marriage.

This can lead to increased feelings of shame when talking openly about sexually transmitted diseases and a lack of confidence in negotiating boundaries, such as always using a condom, Price said.

“At the end (of my dating workshop), I talk about safe sex, and up until that point, the audience is always with me,” Price said. “Then they say, ‘Oh no, no, no, no! Don’t tell us! They really don’t want to face it.'”

Some older men are reluctant to use condoms, she adds, because they already have erectile dysfunction and don’t want to do anything that might affect their sensation.

According to Smith, older people may also be embarrassed to buy condoms or talk to their doctor about sexually transmitted diseases due to societal prejudice and stigma.

Because women live longer on average than men, there is often a strong gender imbalance in the senior dating market, at least among heterosexuals. This, Smith says, can lead to a high rate of shared partners – and thus accelerate the spread of infections.

To counteract this increase, society needs to be more accepting of older people’s sexuality and make it easier for older people to talk freely about their sex lives, Smith argues.

He recommends that doctors routinely ask older patients whether they are sexually active and, if appropriate, test them for sexually transmitted diseases.

Price also advises older people to always carry condoms in situations where sexual intercourse with a penis is possible and to insist on contraception unless they are in a committed monogamous relationship.

“We need to make it clear to people that condoms don’t interfere so much with their sex life. In fact, they make a lot of things possible because they will feel safe doing things that they wouldn’t feel safe doing without condoms,” she said.