Sexually transmitted infections are becoming more common in older adults.
Rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis in people ages 55 and up more than doubled in the U.S. over the 10-year period from 2012 to 2022, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of syphilis cases among people ages 55 and up increased seven-fold during those 10 years, while gonorrhea cases increased nearly five-fold and chlamydia cases more than tripled during that time.
A presentation to be delivered Thursday — part of a lead-up event to the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases next month — warns that both doctors and older adults are overlooking the risks of STIs in this age group.
“We talk about smoking, we talk about diet, exercise, so many things, and not about sex at all,” said Justyna Kowalska, the author of the presentation and a professor of medicine at the Medical University of Warsaw.
The issue is not limited to the U.S. In England, surveillance data published in 2022 suggested that STI diagnoses rose 22% from 2014 to 2019 among people ages 45 and up. Chlamydia was the most common, followed by gonorrhea.
Kowalska pointed to a few factors that may be driving up STI rates among older adults.
For one, people are living longer compared to past generations and enjoying more active lifestyles in their 60s, 70s and 80s. For many, that includes sex. A 2018 survey from AARP and the University of Michigan estimated that 40% of people ages 65 to 80 are sexually active, and nearly two-thirds are interested in sex.
Hormone replacement therapy, which can treat symptoms of menopause, can prolong sexual desire in older women, while erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra can help older men remain sexually active.
But older adults may not have gotten the type of sex education provided to teenagers today, according to Matthew Lee Smith, an associate professor at the Texas A&M School of Public Health.
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