Newsweek Examines Sex Education for the Elderly
Newsweek in its June 3 issue profiles Florida public health official Colette Vallee and her work to educate Florida retirees about preventing sexually transmitted diseases. HIV infection rates among elderly adults are rising, in part because the introduction of Viagra has extended seniors' sex lives and partly due to a "naivete" about protection from sexually transmitted diseases, Newsweek reports. "[M]any adults in their 60s have never even seen a condom," Vallee said, adding that many retirees reached maturity before the sexual revolution. And while younger people "like to think of older people as asexual," Vallee said, "it's hardly the case." Vallee adds that some "condo Casanovas" in retirement communities "bed-hop, exploiting the skewed female-to-male ratio." Vallee's educational talks include information how to have safer vaginal, anal and oral sex, including discussion of the female condom, which is especially "well suited" for the elderly because the device reduces vaginal irritation, she said. Participants, most of whom are in their 60s and 70s, receive condoms, lubricant and the assurance that they are never "too old" to contract HIV, Newsweek reports (McGinn/Skipp, Newsweek, 6/3).
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