You would think that reckless behaviour, particularly when it comes to sex, would be something carried out by the young, but if statistics are to be believed then the reality might be somewhat different!
The news comes after Public Health England revealed that in 2017 there was a 25% rise in the number of older men diagnosed with gonorrhoea in just one year! In 2017, 216 men over 65 got the diagnosis when compared with 173 men in 2016. Similarly between 2016 and 2017 a quarter more women of the same age were diagnosed with herpes.
The NHS took note and launched its latest campaign entitled (unfortunately) ‘Jiggle, Wiggle’, aimed at educating older people about the risks of STIs in later life and has begun handing out condoms at local health centres and has published a 44 page information leaflet as well as trying to educate older lovers about the fact that STIS (like love) know no age.
The spike seems to be associated with a few factors, namely the fact that baby boomers are living longer and staying healthier for longer, the popularity of dating apps, as well as pregnancy no longer being a cause for fear or consternation!
Speaking to The Telegraph, Rebecca Spencer, who oversees the project, said that it was important to focus on this age group given that the sharp spike in STIs was directly traceable to the fact that they’d been previously ignored by campaigns about sexual health and well-being,
In many ways the spike indicates another societal trend, which is the reluctance to acknowledge and talk openly about sex in later life. The rise in gonorrhoea and herpes among is not the ideal way to start doing it, there are other ways like this couple who are over 70 who shot a porno, but every little helps!
