STIs in Older People?!?! (Grandma and Grandpa get the clap, too!)

Last Updated on July 29, 2021 by Stacy Sampson, DO

Doctors are seeing more STIs in older people!

Are you a baby boomer? Are you a person over the age of 50 re-entering the dating game after a loss of a spouse or significant other?

If so, consider thinking twice before enjoying casual sex without protection.

This public service announcement (broadcast in Florida) is an indication of the push to properly educate older citizens as a result of the very real risk they take when engaging in unprotected sexual activities.

This video is awesome and incredibly relevant; safer sex is important during all stages in life. I say, get on with your bad Kama Sutra selves, grandma and grandpa!!! Just make sure you consider wearing protection while doing it!

Better yet, go get tested, just to be sure!

Today’s older adults are living longer, healthier lives that often include sex.

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.

According to statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), almost a quarter of all Americans with HIV/AIDS are older than 50.

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Many with STIs/STDs are left unreported because they are asymptomatic or they are being treated for their symptoms but have not been positively tested for them. Without a test to confirm the diagnosis, those STI/STD occurrences are left undocumented.

Likely, the transmission rate and prevalence of STIs/STDs among older people is much higher as a result of under-reporting.

Rates of sexually transmitted infections and diseases could also 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.

Think Woodstock, the Summer of Love, The Graduate……

Who knew?

• Is There an Age Limit for Safer-Sex?
• Think You Might Have an STI/STD?
• Looking to find an STI/STD testing center near you?
• STI Statistics
• Wondering about the 20 different STIs/STDs you may have been exposed to?
• At-Home STI/STD Testing
• Want to learn more about The STI Project?
• The STI Project’s Recommendations