FirstMed Consulting Blog

The sexual behaviour of older people is more often the target of jocularity or ridicule than the subject of serious scientific research. The Sunday Times article ‘Viagravation’, which has been the subject of this blog all week, has climbed aboard this bandwagon. It paints a picture of an aging population of ‘horny men’ who upon discovery of the ‘magic blue pill’ are rampaging around the red light districts of the world.

The article claims that elderly men are shunning their wives in favour of prostitutes and backing this up with unsubstantiated claims in the media that the recent raise in sexually transmitted diseases and divorce rates can be attributed to pensioners taking Viagra.

The availability of ED treatments such as Viagra is only one factor in enabling older people to have sex in the golden years. This is an age where people are living longer, plastic surgery is getting better and divorce rates are soaring, with or without the help of the ‘little blue pill’

For many people the idea of lowered desire, less frequent sex, and an inevitable slide toward the platonic, characterizes the picture of what old age brings to their sex lives. But older people have always been having sex. Age doesn’t curb the desire for human contact yet recognition of this is considered taboo. Viagra has simply brought to the fore the issue of old age sex and enabled many older men to remain sexually active following medical conditions associated with old age such as prostrate cancer and diabetes. It is the very same generation who began the sexual revolution in the late 1950s that are now finding new passion and partners in their retirement.

In light of these facts, it seems naïve at best to attribute the reported rise in elderly promiscuity to Viagra alone.