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Doctors See More STDs in
Older Patients
Meredith Heagney, The Columbus
Dispatch
February 26, 2012
Nobody reminds Grandpa to wear a condom, but maybe we
should.
Today’s
older adults are living longer, healthier lives that
often include sex. Doctors say that’s good news,
because it means the physical and emotional benefits
of sex aren’t restricted to the young.
But sexual freedom in the golden years has a downside,
too: Physicians say they’re seeing a growing number of
cases of sexually transmitted diseases among older
patients.
“Age is not a reason for people to stop having sex,”
said Dr. Sharon A. Brangman, chairwoman of the board
of directors of the American Geriatrics Society and
chief of geriatrics at Upstate Medical University in
Syracuse, N.Y.
“We need to counter some of the myths we have about
aging and sexuality. We need to have educational
campaigns so older adults continue to practice safe
sex, particularly if they have multiple partners.”
Older people are at risk because many believe they
need not worry about safe sex when pregnancy isn’t a
possibility, said Dr. Mysheika LeMaile-Williams,
medical director at Columbus Public Health.
After a death or divorce, older men and women might be
dating for the first time in decades, and they missed
many of the messages about protecting against disease,
she said.
And with erectile-dysfunction drugs such as Viagra,
many older men are back in the mix.
Heinz
and Waltraud Putz live in Worthington and have been
married since 1959. Mr. Putz, 77, said the couple
knows a number of older people who have multiple sex
partners.
“If your girlfriend is 70,” STDs are “the last thing
you worry about,” he said recently as he watched his
wife participate in a line-dancing class at the
Griswold Center in Worthington.
“I can’t imagine any of these girls having anything
like that.”
But doctors say that’s not the case.
“STDs don’t discriminate by age,” LeMaile-Williams
said.
Nationally,
there was a slight increase in syphilis rates for
people 65 or older from 2000 to 2010 and a decrease in
gonorrhea and chlamydia rates, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The rates are still very low; the most common disease
of the three, chlamydia, is reported in just 2.4 of
every 100,000 adults 65 and older, or 954 cases in
2010. In recent years, people 50 and older have
accounted for 11 percent of new HIV infections in the
United States.
In Ohio, the rates of adults 65 and older with
gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis decreased in
2006-2010, according to Ohio Department of Health
figures.
In 2009, there were just eight new reported diagnoses
of HIV (with or without AIDS) in adults 65 and older
in Ohio, the same number as in 2000. In that time
period, the number of people between the ages of 45
and 64 with a new HIV or AIDS diagnosis rose from 170
to 261.
Experts say, however, that these numbers are low
because they are likely underreported. While sexually
transmitted diseases are reportable, doctors often
treat STDs without confirming its presence with a
test. No confirmation, no reporting.
Either way, some older men and women are taking
precautions.
Elizabeth Collins, 78, said she has dated 41 men since
her divorce in the 1980s. She said she hasn’t been
intimate with all of them, and when she does have sex,
she makes her partners get tested for AIDS.
She “loves sex” but still chooses to take her
relationships slowly, said Collins, who lives on the
Northwest Side.
“When they start to get frisky, I say to them, ‘As
handsome as you are ... people should be friends
before they’re lovers.’ ”
Rates
of sexually transmitted diseases could increase among
older people as baby boomers age, said Dr. Robert
Murden, a professor of geriatrics and internal
medicine at Ohio State University.
He said those who came of age in the 1960s likely will
change the culture of old age.
And as long as they are safe, that’s fine, Murden
said.
“Older people need that closeness and intimacy as much
as younger people do.”
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