Sexuality, Sexual Health and Ageing

Kairos Revista Da Faculdade De Ciencias Humanas E Saude Issn 2176 901x, 2013

International Perspectives on Aging, 2018

Age and Ageing, 2001

While historically sex has been seen primarily as the prerogative of the young, more recently, the emphasis has been on the maintenance of active sexuality as a marker of successful ageing. A new cultural consensus appears to have emerged which not only emphasises the importance of continued sexual activity across the lifespan, but links sexual function with overall health and encourages increased self-surveillance of, and medical attention to, late-life sexuality. Drawing on historical accounts, clinical research, popular science reporting and health promotion literatures, I explore several key shifts in models of sexual ageing, culminating in the contemporary model of gender, sexuality and ageing that has made ageing populations a key market for biotechnologies aimed at enhancing sexual function. Two central concepts frame my analysis: 'virility surveillance', where age-related changes in sexual function are taken as indicative of decline, and the 'pharmaceutical imagination', where sexual lifecourses are reconstructed as drug effects revise standards of sexual function. After consideration of how narratives emerging from qualitative research with older adults challenge the narrow depiction of sexual functionality promoted by pharmaculture, conclusions call for continued critical inquiry into the biomedical construction of sex and age.

Many social stigmas and myths surround the topic of sexuality and its expression in the elderly. Though it is recognised that the need for physical and emotional intimacy does not end as we become older, contemporary society seems to hold the mistaken belief that appropriate sexual expression can only be found in "the young and the beautiful" (or is it "the restless?") In the seemingly sophisticated world in which we live, in a world in which by the year 2000, almost 10% of world's population will be over 60, we find ourselves living in a culture that is often uncomfortable discussing sexual issues. This is particularly so when we deal with issues of touch, intimacy, and sexual interpersonal experience as they relate to the elderly. In order that we understand the positive and holistic dimensions of sexual activity in later life, we must be challenged to confront possible negative societal and personal attitudes that surrounds this topic.

1995

Anyone who aspires to a fulfilling life would probably accept that this should include a right to sexual fulfillment. Yet modern Western culture continues to deny older people the same opportunities enjoyed by the young to express their sexuality. We review the psychosocial and physiological factors that influence the sexual expression of older people, provide a critical review of research paradigms used in the study of aging and sexuality, and discuss educational issues that health professionals and older people themselves must consider in order to dispel myths about asexual older people. We argue that it should not be assumed that the physical and pathological changes associated with advancing age reduce the opportunity to enjoy sex. Alternative interpretations and expressions of sexuality may be one of the great opportunities of growing older, especially in the absence of societal and culturally adverse expectations and attitudes.

Journal of Advanced Nursing, 2014

Consideration of sexuality within a healthy aging framework has propelled a past asexual myth towards a counter myth fuelled by the biomedicalisation of sex. Contained within the counter myth is an imperative to maintain health by remaining sexually active. To explore the experience of sexual desire in older age in relation to the biomedicalisation of sex, we used a hermeneutic interpretive approach to explicate themes from 16 participant narratives. In this paper we discuss four themes: (1) the experience of sexual desire and good health; (2) the experience of sexual desire and poor health; (3) being in a chopped off place, and; (3) using pharmaceuticals for sexual enhancement. The findings suggest that, if there is a counter imperative to remain sexually active, it has negligible effect on some older people. The findings offer health professionals insight into the lived experience of sexual desire in older age and will contribute to a growing body of knowledge about sexuality, ageing and the biomedicalisation of sex.

Sexuality and Culture, 2004