With Americans staying healthy, energetic, and sexually active longer in life than ever before, the Bexar County Metropolitan Health District is extending its STD testing and educational campaigns to a new group--people over 60, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The Metro Health District says STD testing will be available at senior centers, and warnings about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases will be made available to seniors, and to their physicians.From AIDS to chlamydia, people over the age of 55 are the fastest growing segment of the population for STDs, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control.
The healthiness and vigor of this population, combined with drugs like Viagra, have led to an explosion in Americans who remain sexually active into their eighties.
Carol Schliesinger of the Metro Health District says there are a number of reasons for the spike in STD's among older people.She says, for example, sexually active seniors are generally less likely to use condoms.
"When women are no longer able to have babies, they assume that they don't have to protect themselves any more."
The Metro Health District's Jessica Travis says people who are divorced, widowed, or never married may also be at greater risk because they may have have had more sexual partners, simply due to having been sexually active for a longer period.
"There are some STDs that are asymptomatic, so there is a possibilty that an older person may have had an STD for some time, and aren't aware of it until they are tested."
The CDC cites another interesting factor. More gay and Lesbian seniors, who may have suppressed their sexual orientation for decades back in the days when same sex relationships were frowned on or were even illegal are now in the 'experimentation' phase which generally takes place in a person's teens and twenties, and that may expose the individual to greater STD risk.
Schliesinger says since STD education is not generally directed at seniors, they may not get the important information about how to protect themselves and their partners.
Many of seniors may have received rudimentary or no 'sex education' at a time when those topics were taboo in high school.
"Your physician might be uncomfortable approaching the subject, especially if you're a widow or a widower."
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