Bubbe and Zeide, watch out for STDs!

Several recent studies have shown an increase in STDs among older people for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the use of Viagra and similar sex-life-extending drugs. By The Forward Tags: Jewish World

Dianne Matthew’s lecture series on sex education for the 55-and-older gated communities of Boca Raton and Delray Beach began a decade ago, but in the wake of a recently reported “epidemic” among seniors, it has acquired a more urgent tone.

“I use blatant language,” Matthew, a licensed clinical social worker affiliated with South Palm Beach County’s Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service, told the Forward. “They’re not 12-year-old virgins,” she said. “You should be able to say the words ‘vagina,’ ‘penis,’ ‘orgasm.’” Not to mention — though she did — one three-word phrase that had an even greater impact: Sexually. Transmitted. Diseases.

Senior campers at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center.

Several recent studies have shown an increase in STDs among older people for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the use of Viagra and similar sex-life-extending drugs.

Other factors include the lack of concern about pregnancy; naivet? in an age group that mostly predates school-based sex education; large numbers of long-married, one-partner-only widows and widowers, and the fact that many doctors fail to discuss sexual-risk conditions with older patients, assuming it to be unnecessary.

“I say to them, ‘You have to look out for yourself; you think because you can’t get pregnant, you don’t have to be careful,’” Matthew said. “I think, in general, most people are surprised [by the message]. They think it’s not going to happen to them. Most of the women were married to one man for 40 years. In their minds, STDs are for prostitutes.”