Oldsters & Sex

Old age and sex are not incompatible, according to two psychiatrists at Duke University. After interviewing 250 people, aged 60 to 93, Dr. Gustave Newman and Dr. Claude R. Nichols report in the A.M.A. Journal that even at 90 or over, people can, and often do, enjoy normal sexual relations.

The strength of an oldster's sexual life, the psychiatrists found, depends on his general strength: if he suffers from a serious disease, his sexual power wanes along with his other powers. It also depends on the strength of his sexual drive earlier in life. Without exception, the people who rated their drive strong in youth rated it moderate in old age; the people who rated it weak in youth found it absent in old age.

Marriage is a factor. Only 7% of the people without a wife or husband continued to have sexual relations in old age. The social and legal barriers in the way of obtaining a partner were too great. But 54% of the married people still had sexual intercourse, varying from six times a year to three times a week.

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