Sex-Ed for Older Women
Reported March 28, 2005
ATLANTA (Ivanhoe Broadcast News)
— With the rising divorce rate, there are thousands of women in their 50s who are dating again. Many of them are unknowingly engaging in risky sex.
In the early 80s when HIV and AIDS awareness started, Joyce Lewis was busy raising a family and not really thinking about it. “When I first learned about [AIDS], a friend of mine was telling me that her son had it,” Lewis says.
Two decades later, she is single, and she’s now a target for HIV education.
Internist Lisa Bernstein, M.D., says, in the United States, 10 percent of AIDS cases in adult women occur in those over 50. “We have really a misconception that older people don’t have sex, and people don’t want to think of their parents and grandparents engaging in sexual activity, but they do,” Dr. Bernstein, of Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, tells Ivanhoe.
Dr. Bernstein recently published a study with alarming results. “Out of nine questions, not one woman in our study of 514 interviewed got all of them right.”
Only 13 percent of women over 50 thought condoms were effective against HIV. Forty-five percent thought they were protected if a man had a vasectomy. More than half believed diaphragms prevented the disease.
Dr. Bernstein says, “Life has changed for them, and they’re not probably aware of all the risks that they take when they become sexually active today.”
Lewis has a special someone. They’ve been tested for HIV, and both are negative. They’re sexually active, but Lewis says they’re taking a break. “I haven’t had sex in so long, if I was to have it, I wouldn’t know how to act. I’d probably be doing cartwheels.” And, she knows abstinence is the best protection.
Dr. Bernstein says the findings of this study are not only relevant for women but also for their doctors. She says it’s important for doctors to make sure they talk about sex and HIV protection with their patients.
If you would like more information, please contact:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/hivLisa Bernstein, M.D.
Emory University School of Medicine
Grady Memorial Hospital
49 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive, SE, Ste. 205
Atlanta, GA 30303
lbernst@emory.edu