Four out of five women over 70 haven’t had sex for this long

By Stephen Beech via SWNS

Four out of five British women over the age of 70 haven't had sex in the last three weeks, according to new research.

But one in six gay men over 70 (17 percent) has had sex with more than one partner in the same time period - while only one in 50 straight people over 70 (two percent) had multiple partners.

The fascinating insight into the sex lives of straight and gay Brits of all ages comes from a survey of more than 5,100 people aged 18 and older conducted during last year's monkeypox, now known as mpox, outbreak.

The study was based on the responses of 3,297 people sampled from the general population, 1,036 men who have sex with men recruited via Facebook and Instagram, and a further 831 people who responded to adverts on the gay dating app Grindr.

The answers were divided into the three largest groups that each had more than 1,000 responses: women who have sex with men, men who have sex with women, and men who have sex with men (MSM).

The study, published in the journal PLOS One, shows the number of sexual partners we have generally decreases with age, but there were some surprises.

Researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA), working with colleagues from King’s College London and University College London, wanted to better understand how sexual behaviors change with age so that mathematical models of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) can be made more accurate.

Key findings show that many gay and bisexual men over age 70 continue to have a sex life with multiple partners, while straight women become less sexually active after the age of 50.

Most people surveyed had either one or no sexual partners at any age in the preceding three weeks.

Around two-thirds of heterosexual women (65 percent) reported having one partner in the previous three weeks consistently until they were 50, after which there was a "steep climb" in reporting no partners.

Four out of five women age 70 or more who identified as heterosexual or had any male partners in the last three months (79 percent) had no male partners in the last three weeks.

Half the heterosexual men surveyed (50 percent) reported having one partner in the last three weeks.

But they were increasingly likely to report no partners as they got older.

Half of men age 70 or more who were heterosexual or had had sex with any women in the last three months (50 percent) didn’t have a female partner in the most recent three weeks, compared to 44 percent of men having heterosexual sex who had no recent female partners when age under 70.

Partner concurrency – more than one recent sex partner – was uncommon in the general population, but common among the social media samples.

More than four out of 10 (42 percent) of men who have sex with men recruited on Facebook or Instagram and 52 percent of Grindr respondents had at least two recent male partners.

Having more than one recent sex partner was lower among older people, with the least decline among social media respondents.

Seventeen percent of gay men over 70 said they had more than one partner in the most recent three weeks. while one in four (25 percent) recruited via social media had concurrent partners.

Lead researcher Dr. Julii Brainard, of UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “Before this study, many models about sexually transmitted diseases assumed that everyone over a certain age - say 40 or 65 - stopped being sexually active, or at least stopped having multiple partners. 

“Or there might be an assumption that young people have the most sex.

"But the answer is more nuanced, and it partly depends on people’s sexuality.”

She continued: “Most people in our survey, regardless of their gender identity or sexuality, had zero or one recent partner at any age.

“We managed to collect a lot of data from MSM who practiced partner concurrency.

"About 45 percent of them sustained partner concurrency from age 27 to 63.

"Even at age 65+, the respondents recruited via social media still tended to have more sexual contact than the general population sample at the same age.

“It would be interesting to see if these findings were replicated if we targeted heterosexuals most likely to practice partner concurrency.

“Models of disease spread shouldn't assume that young people are necessarily most at risk or that having multiple partners just stops happening at a strict age threshold.”

Dr. Brainard says the information about age profiles and sexual habits is useful because it helps to tailor safe sex messages to the right demographics and use media channels that best reach those subgroups.

Research Fellow Dr. Louise Smith, of Kings College London, said: “This study underscores the importance of considering how data were collected.

"For instance, we can’t conclude from this survey that MSM who use social media are particularly likely to have concurrent partners.

"But it may be that the algorithms that Facebook or Instagram use to identify MSMs are also very good at finding that subset of people.

“At the time, mpox mostly affected gay and bisexual men so we focused recruitment on this group.

"Because we didn’t recruit very many lesbian and bisexual women, or members of the trans community, our statistical analyses would have been less reliable for these groups."

She added: “Further research into other minority sexualities and gender identities could be beneficial to better understand the granularity of sexual behavior and optimal public health messaging suited to different groups of people in the UK.”