Is it healthy to pursue an active sex life as we age? The answer depends on whom you ask.
Medical professionals, optimists and public opinion have long held that the many benefits of sex outweigh the limited drawbacks. But a recent study calls all that into question, raising the possibility that sexually active older men, in particular, are at significantly greater risk for developing heart attacks, high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems than their less-active male peers.
For older women, on the other hand, the study shows that “extremely pleasurable or satisfying” sex appears to protect against cardiovascular disease.
The researchers analyzed information from more than 2,200 men and women who participated in the National Social Life, Health and Aging project at the University of Chicago. They looked at data on sexual activity, including the frequency and satisfaction of partnered sex, and cardiovascular risk, including blood pressure, rapid heart rate, medications and laboratory measures indicating heart damage. The information was gathered at two points in time, first when the subjects were between 57 and 85 years old and again five years later.
Men who reported having sex with a partner once per week or more often in the first data set were almost twice as likely to have experienced cardiovascular problems, including heart attack, heart failure and stroke, in the second.
“Strikingly, we find that having sex once a week or more puts older men at a risk for experiencing cardiovascular events that is almost two times greater than older men who are sexually inactive,” said principal investigator Hui Liu, associate professor of sociology at Michigan State University, in a press release. “Moreover, older men who found sex with their partner extremely pleasurable or satisfying had higher risk of cardiovascular events than men who did not feel so.”
Lui said the study suggests the “strains and demands” of sex may overtax men’s cardiac health, particularly as they “get older, become increasingly frail and suffer more sexual problems [such as erectile dysfunction and difficulty reaching orgasm].”
Women in the study who initially reported that sex was extremely pleasurable or satisfying had a lower incidence of high blood pressure five years later compared to women who did not. The findings were not altered by the frequency of their sexual encounters.
“For women, we have good news,” Liu said. “Good sexual quality may protect older women from cardiovascular risk in later life.”
The report, “Is sex good for your health? A national study on partnered sexuality and cardiovascular risk among older men and women,” was published in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, the peer-reviewed research journal of the American Sociological Association.
However, as is the case with most research, the study is far from conclusive. The researchers acknowledge numerous limitations and call for additional research to further determine causality, the interplay between emotional and physical well-being and “the precise mechanisms and processes through which sexuality affects men and women’s cardiovascular health.”
Sex: It’s ‘very human and normal’ at any age
But, of course, there’s more to sex and sexuality than bedroom performance and lab values.
“The benefits of sexual activity as people age are physiological, emotional, psychological and functional,” said Bangor physician Sufana Alkhunaizi, a geriatric specialist with St. Joseph Healthcare. That’s why she makes a point of bringing the sometimes sensitive issue up with her patients during their annual physicals.
“It’s easier for men to talk about it than women,” she said, noting that older men often are interested in obtaining medication to treat erectile dysfunction. Women are typically less interested in maintaining a sexual relationship as they age, she said, but will sometimes seek guidance at the request of a lustier partner or spouse.
“I always encourage them to continue to be sexually active,” Alkhunaizi said. “Unless there is very severe cardiac disease or other dysfunction, there is no reason for adult patients to stop having sex if they enjoy it.”
Pepper Schwartz, professor of sociology at the University of Washington and AARP’s “Love, Sex and Relationship Ambassador” — “I love my job title,” she said — had not reviewed the recent study in detail. But, she said in a recent phone conversation, its main findings appear to “go against all previous findings.” She cautioned against accepting its conclusions prematurely.
Many studies have shown that sexual activity later in life confers health benefits on both men and women, Schwartz said, including overall stress reduction that results from the release of the “love hormone,” oxytocin, during sex. In both men and women, oxytocin counters the production of the stress hormone cortisol, which is closely linked to the body’s fight-or-flight response and drives up blood pressure and pulse as it promotes hypervigilance and muscle tension.
Although no one would mistake an occasional sexual romp for a meaningful exercise routine, especially between long-term, later-in-life partners, Schwartz said the physical activity that typically occurs during lovemaking is generally considered a healthy thing.
“It’s not necessarily the case that sex is a high-exertion activity,” she said, “unless you’re hanging off the chandeliers.”
Schwartz will be the featured speaker at the upcoming University of Maine Clinical Geriatric Colloquium on Oct. 7. The author of numerous books about sex and online AARP features such as “ How to Have Better Sex After 50,” “ Intercourse Alternatives 101” and “ Starting Over After Losing a Partner,” she said there are many misconceptions about sexuality in older age, even among professionals who work with seniors every day. They include assumptions that older individuals and couples don’t enjoy sex or experience the urge to be physically intimate, even when physical or cognitive changes alter the ways sexuality can be expressed.
Appropriate sexual behaviors in older adults, even those in nursing homes or other residential facilities, can range from hand-holding and snuggling to deep kissing, intimate touching, masterbation and intercourse, she said.
“One of my missions in life is to make sure we don’t sign people off from their sexuality just because they’re getting older,” she said. “Let’s not be denying a very important part of our humanity to older people.”
Schwartz fields all kinds of questions from her readers. The most common comes from longtime couples who find that one partner is still very interested in an active sex life while the other is not. Often, she said, women’s interest in sex wanes before men’s, but not always.
“People feel trapped by this unilateral decision [to stop having sex], even when they respect the seriousness of their commitment,” she said.
Often, committed couples can negotiate common ground, she said, so both partners feel fulfilled and respected.
“There’s a big difference between saying, ‘I don’t have the same level of sexual interest as you’ and saying, ‘Don’t touch me,’” Schwartz said. “It’s very human and normal to crave touch and arousal, to rub our bodies together for comfort and pleasure. When you shut that off, you shut off something very important.”
An invitation to discuss
At the University of Maine in Orono, human sexuality professor Sandra Caron said the recent study serves a valuable purpose.
“It counters the widely held belief that older adults have no desire, no ability and no activity when it comes to sex,” she said. “It highlights that we are sexual beings from birth to death and that many older adults continue to have sexual feelings, desires and in some cases, active sexual lives.”
Caron said a national survey in 2010 found that while sexual activity decreases with age, satisfaction does not.
“Although sexual response may be slightly subdued with age, it is no less pleasurable,” she said.
Older couples may need to adjust their expectations in the bedroom, she said, making allowances for changing physical abilities and fluctuations in desire while exploring new ways to connect sexually and emotionally.
The new study, Caron said, provides an invitation for students, professionals and ordinary people to have frank discussions about healthy adult sexuality throughout the lifespan.
“We forget that in human events there are no ‘right’ ways, no external scripts that will make us happy,” she said. “[The goal] is to discover what we’re all about, including our changing sexuality and the best ways of expressing it.”
