Science / Medicine : ‘Good News’ on Sex After 60

Most married women in their 60s not only desire sex but engage in it an average of five times a month, a survey of older women shows.

“The news is good for all of us as we approach our 65th birthdays,” said Dr. Gloria A. Bachman, a gynecologist at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. “We found sex is alive and well in older women.”

Bachman, in a report presented last week to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said 59 older women were surveyed.

It showed that two-thirds of all married women in their 60s, some of them two decades past menopause, are sexually active and many enjoy sex as much as they did when they were younger.

Of the women who weren’t sexually active, 60% blamed their husbands--mainly citing a lack of interest on the part of their spouses. The husbands, however, said the basic reason was impotence or the fear of it.