Sexuality and Aging

Sex and senior citizens seems to be one of those topics that the media love to pick up every now and then, play with for a few minutes, and like the ADD folks they are, promptly forget about until a new book comes along, or an editor feels like the word "sex" hasn't appeared in paper enough that week. It's a fad for them.

But for any of us who live long enough, being a senior citizen and being sexual isn't a fad, it's a reality. Our sexuality doesn't stop or change because we are getting older. Our sexuality changes, but it does that throughout our lives.

The biggest change when it comes to aging and sex may not be how our body responds differently, or how we think and feel, it may be the way we are treated by everyone around us, and the ways our access to partners change as we get older.

It's hard not to sound glib about sex and aging bodies. The fact is that as we age we do have to learn to adapt to our changing bodies, it isn't all "embrace your inner wisdom" and "spend all that free time having sex". Although both of those sound pretty good if you can make it work.

The bottom line is that changing and adapting isn't necessarily easy but it is possible and can result in both great sex and greater self knowledge.