Lifestyle and health make for a good sex life among older men

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A survey showed that chronic illness and medication account for many of men's sexual problems as they age.
For around 20 years, doctors at Harvard Medical school have been gathering information on men's health from the Havard Health Professionals Follow-up Study. In 2000, they added some questions about sexuality to the semi-annual survey and these have come up with some interesting new data.

Illness, and medication used to treat it, seem to account most of the sexual problems experienced by aging men. Sexual dysfunction was most common among those with diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke and depression. Men with prostate cancer are ten to 15 times more likely to have sexual problems than those without the disease. But these stem from treatment rather than the cancer itself.

Even in healthy men, aspects of sexual functioning declined with age. Libido decreased although it was better preserved than erectile function. But testosterone is not necessarily to blame, as three quarters of older men have normal levels. In short, good health is the best guarantee of a satisfying sex life as one gets older.

Source
Harvard Men's Health Watch March 2006

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