No retirement age when it comes to sex

So Dr. Ruth was right after all: You are never too old to boogie.
Many seniors are still having sex, and if they aren't, it is likely due to poor health or lack of a partner, the most comprehensive sex survey ever done among 57- to 85-year-olds reveals.
The study was done by respected scientists at the University of Chicago and published in today's New England Journal of Medicine — not some scandal sheet.
"It's about time," said Ruth Westheimer, the 79-year-old radio and television sexpert who has crusaded against age bias where intimacy is concerned.
"Older people should stop looking at their bodies and saying, 'My body doesn't look like it did when I was 25.' Go out and buy some sexy lingerie, not necessarily the ones that younger people buy," she urged.
The federally funded study did not offer advice, but was commissioned because sex is important to health and happiness.
"Most people assume that people stop doing it after some vague age," but that appears untrue, said researcher Edward Laumann of the University of Chicago.
For example, more than half of those aged 57 to 75 said they gave or received oral sex, as did about a third of 75- to 85-year-olds.
The survey involved two-hour face-to-face interviews with 3,005 men and women around the country.
Researchers also took blood, saliva and other samples that will tell about hormone levels, sex-related infections and other health issues in future reports. They even tested how well seniors could see, taste, hear and smell — things that affect being able to have and enjoy sex.
The survey had a remarkable 75 percent response rate. Only 2 percent to 7 percent did not answer questions about sexual activities or problems, although a higher percentage declined to reveal how often they masturbate.
Sex is an important indicator of health, said Georgeanne Patmios of the National Institute on Aging, the study's main funder. Problems can be a warning sign of diabetes, infections, cancer or other health woes. Untreated sex issues can lead to depression and social withdrawal, and people may even stop taking needed medications because of sexual side effects, the researchers wrote.
Some of them did a landmark study of sexual habits in younger people a decade ago, but little is known about X-rated behaviors beyond Generation X.
"This subject has been taboo for so long that many older people haven't even talked to their spouses about their sexual problems, let alone a physician," said the lead author, Dr. Stacy Tesser Lindau, a University of Chicago gynecologist.
The National Opinion Research Center, a university-affiliated private research firm, did the surveys in people's homes. Laumann, its chairman, has received research support from Pfizer Inc., the maker of Viagra.
The proportion of each gender reporting giving and receiving oral sex "matched up perfectly," Lindau said. "This gives us pretty good reassurance that men and women are telling the same story."
Older people were generally sexually conservative. A small minority had more than one partner, and very few said they paid for sex.
Niels Teunis, an anthropologist and researcher at the Institute of Sexuality, Social Inequality, and Health at San Francisco State University, said the survey bolsters the "use it or lose it" factor seen in previous studies.
"If you are doing it, you keep doing it. If you slack off in marriage like when you're in your 40s, it's hard to pick it up when you are older," he said.
Jack Menager, 83, and his wife, Elizabeth, 84, agree. The suburban Los Angeles couple say they have had a good sex life for nearly 60 years.
"It gives a person relief on any burdens or problems. It makes us forget everything — escape," he said, admitting that as physical endurance wanes "you have to work at it harder."
The couple take twice-daily walks, drink wine in moderation and talk a lot, said his wife.
"I think it's important," she said of sex. "It just makes you feel close."
More men than women felt that way. Only 13 percent of men but 35 percent of women said sex was "not at all important."