Havelock Ellis Sexual impulse in youth What was his view on sexual impulse in the youth? book, he goes into vivid detail of how children can experience sexuality differently in terms of time and intensity. How does he feel they experience it differently? sex impulse has no normal existence in early life, then every manifestation of it at that period must be 'perverse,
Does he think that the youth are more sexually active than older people?
Does Havelock Ellis think that the youth are more sexually active than older people?
Dr. Havelock Ellis' 1933 book, Psychology of Sex, is one of the many manifestations of his interest in human sexuality. In this book, he goes into vivid detail of how children can experience sexuality differently in terms of time and intensity. He mentions that it was previously believed that, in childhood, humans had no sex impulse at all. "If it is possible to maintain that the sex impulse has no normal existence in early life, then every manifestation of it at that period must be 'perverse,'" he adds. He continues by stating that, even in the early development and lower function levels of the genitalia, there is a wide range of variation in terms of sexual stimulation. He claims that the ability of some infants producing genital reactions, seen as "reflex signs of irritation" are typically not vividly remembered. Since the details of these manifestations are not remembered, there is no possible way to determine them as pleasurable. However, Ellis claims that many people of both sexes can recall having agreeable sensations with the genitalia as a child. "They are not (as is sometimes imagined) repressed." They are, however, not usually mentioned to adults. Ellis argues that they typically stand out and are remembered for the sole contrast of the intense encounter to any other ordinary experience.  Ellis claims that sexual self-excitement is known to happen at an early age. He references authors like Marc, Fonssagrives, and Perez in France who published their findings in the nineteenth century. These early ages are not strictly limited to ages close to puberty as can be seen in their findings. These authors provide cases for children of both sexes who have masturbated from the age of three or four. Ellis references Robie's findings that boys' first sex feelings appear between the ages of five and fourteen. For girls, this age ranges from eight to nineteen. For both sexes, these first sexual experiences arise more frequently during the later years as opposed to the earlier years. Ellis then references Hamilton's studies that found twenty percent of males and fourteen percent of females have pleasurable experiences with their sex organs before the age of six. This is only supplemented by Ellis' reference to Katharine Davis' studies, which found that twenty to twenty-nine percent of boys and forty-nine to fifty-one percent were masturbating by the age of eleven. However, in the next three years after, boys' percentages exceeded that of girls.  Dr. Ellis also contributed to the idea of varying levels of sexual excitation. He asserts it is a mistake to assume all children experience are able to experience genital arousal or pleasurable erotic sensations. He proposes cases where an innocent child is led to believe that stimulation of the genitalia will result in a pleasurable erection. Some of these children may fail and not be able to experience this either pleasure or an erection until puberty. Ellis concludes, then, that children are capable of a "wide range of genital and sexual aptitude." Ellis even considers ancestry as contributions to different sexual excitation levels, stating that children of "more unsound heredity" and/or hypersexual parents are "more precociously excitable." CANNOTANSWER
He claims that the ability of some infants producing genital reactions, seen as "reflex signs of irritation" are typically not vividly remembered.
Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 – 8 July 1939) was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in 1897, and also published works on a variety of sexual practices and inclinations, as well as on transgender psychology. He is credited with introducing the notions of narcissism and autoeroticism, later adopted by psychoanalysis.

Ellis was among the pioneering investigators of psychedelic drugs and the author of one of the first written reports to the public about an experience with mescaline, which he conducted on himself in 1896. He supported eugenics and served as one of 16 vice-presidents of the Eugenics Society from 1909 to 1912.

Early life and career
Ellis, son of Edward Peppen Ellis and Susannah Mary Wheatley, was born in Croydon, Surrey (now part of Greater London). He had four sisters, none of whom married. His father was a sea captain, his mother the daughter of a sea captain, and many other relatives lived on or near the sea. When he was seven his father took him on one of his voyages, during which they called at Sydney, Australia; Callao, Peru; and Antwerp, Belgium. After his return, Ellis attended the French and German College near Wimbledon, and afterward attended a school in Mitcham.

In April 1875, Ellis sailed on his father's ship for Australia; soon after his arrival in Sydney, he obtained a position as a master at a private school. After the discovery of his lack of training, he was fired and became a tutor for a family living a few miles from Carcoar, New South Wales. He spent a year there and then obtained a position as a master at a grammar school in Grafton, New South Wales. The headmaster had died and Ellis carried on at the school for that year, but was unsuccessful.

At the end of the year, he returned to Sydney and, after three months' training, was given charge of two government part-time elementary schools, one at Sparkes Creek, near Scone, New South Wales, and the other at Junction Creek. He lived at the school house on Sparkes Creek for a year. He wrote in his autobiography, "In Australia, I gained health of body, I attained peace of soul, my life task was revealed to me, I was able to decide on a professional vocation, I became an artist in literature; these five points covered the whole activity of my life in the world. Some of them I should doubtless have reached without the aid of the Australian environment, scarcely all, and most of them I could never have achieved so completely if chance had not cast me into the solitude of the Liverpool Range."

Medicine and psychology
Ellis returned to England in April 1879. He had decided to take up the study of sex and felt his first step must be to qualify as a physician. He studied at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, now part of King's College London, but never had a regular medical practice. His training was aided by a small legacy and also income earned from editing works in the Mermaid Series of lesser known Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. He joined The Fellowship of the New Life in 1883, meeting other social reformers Eleanor Marx, Edward Carpenter and George Bernard Shaw.

The 1897 English translation of Ellis's book Sexual Inversion, co-authored with John Addington Symonds and originally published in German in 1896, was the first English medical textbook on homosexuality. It describes male homosexual relations as well as adolescent rape. Ellis wrote the first objective study of homosexuality, as he did not characterise it as a disease, immoral, or a crime. The work assumes that same-sex love transcended age taboos as well as gender taboos. The first edition of the book was bought-out by the executor of Symond's estate, who forbade any mention of Symonds in the second edition.

In 1897 a bookseller was prosecuted for stocking Ellis's book. Although the term homosexual is attributed to Ellis, he wrote in 1897, "'Homosexual' is a barbarously hybrid word, and I claim no responsibility for it." In fact, the word homosexual was coined in 1868 by the Hungarian author Karl-Maria Kertbeny.

Ellis may have developed psychological concepts of autoerotism and narcissism, both of which were later developed further by Sigmund Freud. Ellis's influence may have reached Radclyffe Hall, who would have been about 17 years old at the time Sexual Inversion was published. She later referred to herself as a sexual invert and wrote of female "sexual inverts" in Miss Ogilvy Finds Herself and The Well of Loneliness. When Ellis bowed out as the star witness in the trial of  The Well of Loneliness on 14 May 1928, Norman Haire was set to replace him but no witnesses were called.

Eonism
Ellis studied what today are called transgender phenomena. Together with Magnus Hirschfeld, Havelock Ellis is considered a major figure in the history of sexology to establish a new category that was separate and distinct from homosexuality. Aware of Hirschfeld's studies of transvestism, but disagreeing with his terminology, in 1913 Ellis proposed the term sexo-aesthetic inversion to describe the phenomenon. In 1920 he coined the term eonism, which he derived from the name of a historical figure, the Chevalier d'Éon. Ellis explained:

Ellis found eonism to be "a remarkably common anomaly", and "next in frequency to homosexuality among sexual deviations", and categorized it as "among the transitional or intermediate forms of sexuality". As in the Freudian tradition, Ellis postulated that a "too close attachment to the mother" may encourage eonism, but also considered that it "probably invokes some defective endocrine balance".

Marriage 

In November 1891, at the age of 32, and reportedly still a virgin, Ellis married the English writer and proponent of women's rights Edith Lees. From the beginning, their marriage was unconventional, as Edith Lees was openly lesbian. At the end of the honeymoon, Ellis went back to his bachelor rooms in Paddington. She lived at Fellowship House. Their "open marriage" was the central subject in Ellis's autobiography, My Life. Ellis reportedly had an affair with Margaret Sanger.

According to Ellis in My Life, his friends were much amused at his being considered an expert on sex. Some knew that he reportedly suffered from impotence until the age of 60. He then discovered that he could become aroused by the sight of a woman urinating. Ellis named this "undinism". After his wife died, Ellis formed a relationship with a French woman, Françoise Lafitte.

Eugenics
Ellis was a supporter of eugenics. He served as vice-president to the Eugenics Education Society and wrote on the subject, among others, in The Task of Social Hygiene:

In his early writings, it was clear that Ellis concurred with the notion that there was a system of racial hierarchies, and that non-western cultures were considered to be "lower races". Before explicitly talking about eugenic topics, he used the prevalence of homosexuality in these 'lower races' to indicate the universality of the behavior. In his work, Sexual Inversions, where Ellis presented numerous cases of homosexuality in Britain, he was always careful to mention the race of the subject and the health of the person's 'stock', which included their neuropathic conditions and the health of their parents. However, Ellis was clear to assert that he did not feel that homosexuality was an issue that eugenics needed to actively deal with, as he felt that once the practice was accepted in society, those with homosexual tendencies would comfortably choose not to marry, and thus would cease to pass the 'homosexual heredity' along.

In a debate in the Sociological Society, Ellis corresponded with noted eugenicist Francis Galton, who was presenting a paper in support of marriage restrictions. While Galton analogized eugenics to breeding domesticated animals, Ellis felt that a greater sense of caution was needed before applying the eugenic regulations to populations, as "we have scarcely yet realized how subtle and far-reaching hereditary influences are." Instead, because unlike domesticated animals, humans were in charge of who they mated with, Ellis argued that a greater emphasis was needed on public education about how vital this issue was. Ellis thus held much more moderate views than many contemporary eugenicists. In fact, Ellis also fundamentally disagreed with Galton's leading ideas that procreation restrictions were the same as marriage restrictions. Ellis believed that those who should not procreate should still be able to gain all the other benefits of marriage, and to not allow that was an intolerable burden. This, in his mind, was what led to eugenics being "misunderstood, ridiculed, and regarded as a fad".

Throughout his life, Ellis was both a member and later a council member of the Eugenics Society. Moreover, he played a role on the General Committee of the First International Eugenics Congress.

Sexual impulse in youth 
Ellis' 1933 book, Psychology of Sex, is one of the many manifestations of his interest in human sexuality. In this book, he goes into vivid detail of how children can experience sexuality differently in terms of time and intensity. He mentions that it was previously believed that, in childhood, humans had no sex impulse at all. "If it is possible to maintain that the sex impulse has no normal existence in early life, then every manifestation of it at that period must be 'perverse, he adds. He continues by stating that, even in the early development and lower function levels of the genitalia, there is a wide range of variation in terms of sexual stimulation. He claims that the ability of some infants producing genital reactions, seen as "reflex signs of irritation" are typically not vividly remembered. Since the details of these manifestations are not remembered, there is no possible way to determine them as pleasurable. However, Ellis claims that many people of both sexes can recall having agreeable sensations with the genitalia as a child. "They are not (as is sometimes imagined) repressed." They are, however, not usually mentioned to adults. Ellis argues that they typically stand out and are remembered for the sole contrast of the intense encounter to any other ordinary experience.

Ellis claims that sexual self-excitement is known to happen at an early age. He references authors like Marc, Fonssagrives, and Perez in France who published their findings in the nineteenth century. These early ages are not strictly limited to ages close to puberty as can be seen in their findings. These authors provide cases for children of both sexes who have masturbated from the age of three or four. Ellis references Robie's findings that boys' first sex feelings appear between the ages of five and fourteen. For girls, this age ranges from eight to nineteen. For both sexes, these first sexual experiences arise more frequently during the later years as opposed to the earlier years. Ellis then references G.V. Hamilton's studies that found twenty percent of males and fourteen percent of females have pleasurable experiences with their sex organs before the age of six. This is only supplemented by Ellis' reference to Katharine Davis' studies, which found that twenty to twenty-nine percent of boys and forty-nine to fifty-one percent of girls were masturbating by the age of eleven. However, in the next three years after, boys' percentages exceeded those of girls.

Ellis also contributed to the idea of varying levels of sexual excitation. He asserts it is a mistake to assume all children are able to experience genital arousal or pleasurable erotic sensations. He proposes cases where an innocent child is led to believe that stimulation of the genitalia will result in a pleasurable erection. Some of these children may fail and not be able to experience this either pleasure or an erection until puberty. Ellis concludes, then, that children are capable of a "wide range of genital and sexual aptitude". Ellis even considers ancestry as contributions to different sexual excitation levels, stating that children of "more unsound heredity" and/or hypersexual parents are "more precociously excitable".

Auto-eroticism 
Ellis' views of auto-eroticism were very comprehensive, including much more than masturbation. Auto-eroticism, according to Ellis, includes a wide range of phenomena. Ellis states in his 1897 book Studies in the Psychology of Sex, that auto-eroticism ranges from erotic day-dreams, marked by a passivity shown by the subject, to "unshamed efforts at sexual self-manipulation witnessed among the insane".

Ellis also argues that auto-erotic impulses can be heightened by bodily processes like menstrual flow. During this time, he says, women, who would otherwise not feel a strong propensity for auto-eroticism, increase their masturbation patterns. This trend is absent, however, in women without a conscious acceptance of their sexual feelings and in a small percentage of women suffering from a sexual or general ailment which result in a significant amount of "sexual anesthesia".

Ellis also raises social concern over how auto-erotic tendencies affect marriages. He goes on to tying auto-eroticism to declining marriage rates. As these rates decline, he concludes that auto-eroticism will only increase in both amount and intensity for both men and women. Therefore, he states, this is an important issue to both the moralist and physician to investigate psychological underpinnings of these experiences and determine an attitude toward them.

Smell 
Ellis believed that the sense of smell, although ineffective at long ranges, still contributes to sexual attraction, and therefore, to mate selection. In his 1905 book, Sexual selection in man, Ellis makes a claim for the sense of smell in the role of sexual selection. He asserts that while we have evolved out of a great necessity for the sense of smell, we still rely on our sense of smell with sexual selection. The contributions that smell makes in sexual attraction can even be heightened with certain climates. Ellis states that with warmer climates come a heightened sensitivity to sexual and other positive feelings of smell among normal populations. Because of this, he believes people are often delighted by odors in the East, particularly in India, in "Hebrew and Mohammedan lands". Ellis then continues by describing the distinct odours in various races, noting that the Japanese race has the least intense of bodily odours. Ellis concludes his argument by stating, "On the whole, it may be said that in the usual life of man odours play a not inconsiderable part and raise problems which are not without interest, but that their demonstrable part in actual sexual selection is comparatively small."

Views on women and birth control
Ellis favoured feminism from a eugenic perspective, feeling that the enhanced social, economic, and sexual choices that feminism provided for women would result in women choosing partners who were more eugenically sound. In his view, intelligent women would not choose, nor be forced to marry and procreate with feeble-minded men.

Ellis viewed birth control as merely the continuation of an evolutionary progression, noting that natural progress has always consisted of increasing impediments to reproduction, which lead to a lower quantity of offspring, but a much higher quality of them. From a eugenic perspective, birth control was an invaluable instrument for the elevation of the race. However, Ellis noted that birth control could not be used randomly in a way that could have a detrimental impact by reducing conception, but rather needed to be used in a targeted manner to improve the qualities of certain 'stocks'. He observed that it was unfortunately the 'superior stocks' who had knowledge of and used birth control while the 'inferior stocks' propagated without checks. Ellis' solution to this was a focus on contraceptives in education, as this would disseminate the knowledge in the populations that he felt needed them the most. Ellis argued that birth control was the only available way of making eugenic selection practicable, as the only other option was wide-scale abstention from intercourse for those who were 'unfit'.

Views on sterilization
Ellis was strongly opposed to the idea of castration for eugenic purposes. In 1909, regulations were introduced at the Cantonal Asylum in Bern, which allowed those deemed 'unfit' and with strong sexual inclinations to be mandatorily sterilized. In a particular instance, several men and women, including epileptics and paedophiles, were castrated, some of whom voluntarily requested it. While the results were positive, in that none of the subjects were found guilty of any more sexual offences, Ellis remained staunchly opposed to the practice. His view on the origin of these inclinations was that sexual impulses do not reside in the sexual organs, but rather they persist in the brain. Moreover, he posited that the sexual glands provided an important source of internal secretions vital for the functioning of the organism, and thus their removal could greatly injure the patient.

However, already in his time, Ellis was witness to the rise of vasectomies and ligatures of the Fallopian tubes, which performed the same sterilization without removing the whole organ. In these cases, Ellis was much more favourable, yet still maintaining that "sterilization of the unfit, if it is to be a practical and humane measure commanding general approval, must be voluntary on the part of the person undergoing it, and never compulsory." His opposition to such a system was not only rooted in morality. Rather, Ellis also considered the practicality of the situation, hypothesizing that if an already mentally unfit man is forced to undergo sterilization, he would only become more ill-balanced, and would end up committing more anti-social acts.

Though Ellis was never at ease with the idea of forced sterilizations, he was willing to find ways to circumvent that restriction. His focus was on the social ends of eugenics, and as a means to it, Ellis was in no way against 'persuading' 'volunteers' to undergo sterilization by withdrawing Poor Relief from them. While he preferred to convince those he deemed unfit using education, Ellis supported coercion as a tool. Furthermore, he supported adding ideas about eugenics and birth control to the education system in order to restructure society, and to promote social hygiene. For Ellis, sterilization seemed to be the only eugenic instrument that could be used on the mentally unfit. In fact, in his publication The Sterilization of the Unfit, Ellis argued that even institutionalization could not guarantee the complete prevention of procreation between the unfit, and thus, "the burdens of society, to say nothing of the race, are being multiplied. It is not possible to view sterilization with enthusiasm when applied to any class of people…but what, I ask myself, is the practical alternative?"

Psychedelics
Ellis was among the pioneering investigators of psychedelic drugs and the author of one of the first written reports to the public about an experience with mescaline, which he conducted on himself in 1896. He consumed a brew made of 3 Echinocacti (peyote) in the afternoon of Good Friday alone in his apartment in Temple, London. During the experience, lasting for about 24 hours, he noted a plethora of extremely vivid, complex, colourful, pleasantly smelling hallucinations, consisting both of abstract geometrical patterns and definite objects such as butterflies and other insects. He published the account of the experience in The Contemporary Review in 1898 (Mescal: A New Artificial Paradise). The title of the article alludes to an earlier work on the effects of mind-altering substances, an 1860 book Les Paradis artificiels by French poet Charles Baudelaire (containing descriptions of experiments with opium and hashish).

Ellis was so impressed with the aesthetic quality of the experience that he gave some specimens of peyote to the Irish poet W. B. Yeats, a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an organisation of which another mescaline researcher, Aleister Crowley, was also a member.

Later life and death
Ellis resigned from his position of Fellow of the Eugenics Society over their stance on sterilization in January 1931.

Ellis spent the last year of his life at Hintlesham, Suffolk, where he died in July 1939. He is buried in Golders Green Crematorium, in North London.

Works

 The Criminal (1890)
 The New Spirit (1890)
 The Nationalisation of Health (1892)
 Man and Woman: A Study of Secondary and Tertiary Sexual Characteristics (1894) (revised 1929)
 translator: Germinal (by Zola) (1895) (reissued 1933)
  with J.A. Symonds
 Studies in the Psychology of Sex (1897–1928) six volumes (listed below)
 
 Affirmations (1898)
 
 The Nineteenth Century (1900)
 
 
 A Study of British Genius (1904)
 
 
 The Soul of Spain (1908)
 
 
 The Problem of Race-Regeneration (1911)
 The World of Dreams (1911) (new edition 1926)
 
 
 The Task of Social Hygiene (1912)
 
 The Philosophy of Conflict (1919)
 On Life and Sex: Essays of Love and Virtue (1921)
 
 Little Essays of Love and Virtue (1922)
 
 
 Sonnets, with Folk Songs from the Spanish (1925)
 Eonism and Other Supplementary Studies (1928)
 Studies in the Psychology of Sex Vol. 7 (1928)
 The Art of Life (1929) (selected and arranged by Mrs. S. Herbert)
 More Essays of Love and Virtue (1931)
 ed.: James Hinton: Life in Nature (1931)
 
 
 ed.: Imaginary Conversations and Poems: A Selection, by Walter Savage Landor (1933)
 Chapman (1934)
 My Confessional (1934)
 Questions of Our Day (1934)
 From Rousseau to Proust (1935)
 Selected Essays (1936)
 Poems (1937) (selected by John Gawsworth; pseudonym of T. Fytton Armstrong)
 Love and Marriage (1938) (with others)
 
 Sex Compatibility in Marriage (1939)
 From Marlowe to Shaw (1950) (ed. by J. Gawsworth)
 The Genius of Europe (1950)
 Sex and Marriage (1951) (ed. by J. Gawsworth)
 The Unpublished Letters of Havelock Ellis to Joseph Ishill (1954)

References

Bibliography

Further reading

 
 
   (U.S. title)

External links

 Havelock Ellis papers (MS 195). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library 

 
 Henry Havelock Ellis papers from the Historic Psychiatry Collection, Menninger Archives, Kansas Historical Society
 
 
 

1859 births
1939 deaths
19th-century English non-fiction writers
20th-century English non-fiction writers
Alumni of King's College London
Alumni of St Thomas's Hospital Medical School
British sexologists
English eugenicists
English psychologists
People from Croydon
Psychedelic drug advocates
British relationships and sexuality writers
Medical writers on LGBT topics
British social reformers
Transgender studies academics
Victorian writers
Translators of Émile Zola
Sexually active life expectancy is the average number of years remaining for a person to be sexually active. This population-based indicator extends the concept of health expectancy to the measure of sexuality (via sexual activity). Calculation of sexually active life expectancy uses the age-specific prevalence data on sexual activity in conjunction with life table data on survival probabilities to partition the number of person-years into years with and without sexual activity, which is based on the Sullivan method. The Sullivan method's objective is to understand the change of health in a given population over time.

Studies
The measure of sexually active life expectancy was introduced by Lindau and Gavrilova. Through their study of two cohorts, researchers Lindau and Gavrilova found that sexual activity, a good quality sex life, and interest in sex were associated with self rated health in a positive way. Their research focused on midlife and later life health. This included ages 27 to 74 years and 57 to 85 years. In their findings they concluded that a gender difference was present with increasing age. Evidence proved that men were more likely than women to be engaging in sexual activity. Men were also more likely to report that they were even interested in having sex and that they were having good quality sex . In addition, the research demonstrated that only 51.8% of women in a later stage of life reported being satisfied by their sexual life compared to 71.1% of men. Furthermore, their research showed that men in good or excellent health participated in regular sexual activity lived an extra five to seven years, and women in substantially good health lived three to six years longer. Even though the gender gap is evident, the research provides a clear association between health and sexual activity.

A study of two large population-based U.S. surveys found that, on average, women expect fewer years of sexual activity, mainly due to prevalent widowhood among older women. This gender disparity is attenuated for people with a spouse or other intimate partner. The study also found that men tend to lose more years of sexually active life due to poor health.

Sexually active life expectancy is associated with self-reports of good health in both men and women. Sexuality has been identified as an important attribute to overall health and a marker of quality of life. Sexual desire has also been attributed to good health, good sexual functioning, positive sexual self-esteem, and a skillful partner. Physicians may find that sexually active life expectancy can be used as an incentive for patients to become (and stay) healthy. Institutional settings such as residential care facilities should focus on offering an accepting environment for sexually active older people.

Barriers preventing sex 
Although people generalize that older adults do not participate in sex often, research shows that older people enjoy participating in a variety of sexual activities. Barriers, both physically and mentally, is an important factor that influences older adults' sexual activities. These barriers can be seen at the individual, societal, and structural level. Some barriers include: lack of privacy, availability of sexual partner, mental health, and the impact of prescriptions on sexual desires.

Age-related barriers 
Age-related factors can be identified through the decline of health. This can include declining fitness and mobility levels. Biological changes, such as menopause for women, can cause an unpleasant experience during sex. This can include painful intercourse and a lack of sex drive, however, many women have reported that not having to worry about becoming pregnant made them enjoy sexual activity more. The presence of diseases such as arthritis, can also greatly affect a person's sexual activities, however, this is evident for any age range. Factors such as a decrease in self esteem, confidence, and cognitive function can prohibit an older person from participating in sex or romantic partnerships. Having to live in an assisted living home has also created a physical behavior. People are less likely to have the privacy that they want when they are surrounded by other elderly people and nurses.

Intimate relationships within institutional settings (residential care) 
Due to the increasing ageist attitudes towards older people being sexually active, there is not many programs advocating for older people's sexuality. Employers of residential facilities see many problems with allowing older people to participate in sexual activities. Within institutional settings, segregation was found to be the main boundary between older people, assuming they were heterosexual, achieving sexual activities. Many buildings were designed to ensure that males and females were separated, usually by floors or specific wings of the building. Unless they could afford to, married couples were not able to stay with each other in residential care facilities. Creating a "home" environment is a key factor in an older person's well-being, especially since this facility may be the last place an older person resides in. Therefore, being open minded about residents' sexual life would be very beneficial to older people.

Legal and ethical issues 
One of the main reasons residential homes do not care to facilitate intimate relationships is because employees may have a hard time distinguishing a desired sexual partnership from an undesired one. The residential care faces possible issues if a resident is being taken advantage of especially if they are physically or mentally incapable to protect themselves. Facilities usually have a safeguarding and protection policy which monitors any relationship to prevent abuse.

References

Further reading

External links 
 Calculate your sexually active life expectancy

Sexuality and age
Gerontology
Survival analysis Sexuality in older age concerns the sexual drive, sexual activity, interests, orientation, intimacy, self-esteem, behaviors, and overall sexuality of people in middle age and old age, and the social perceptions concerning sexuality in older age. Older people engage in a variety of sexual acts from time to time for a variety of reasons. Desire for intimacy does not disappear with age, yet there are many restrictions placed on the elderly preventing sexual expressions and discouraging the fulfillment of sexual needs. Sexuality in older age is often considered a taboo, yet it is considered to be quite a healthy practice; however, this stigma can affect how older individuals experience their sexuality. While the human body has some limits on the maximum age for reproduction, sexual activity can be performed or experienced well into the later years of life.

Physical changes
Both male and female libidos tend to decline with increasing age, and women tend to lose their libido faster than men. However, desire for sexual activity is not lost completely. Neither does it decrease for everyone. Menopause, a female biological process, has been linked to a loss of interest in sexual activity and to a desensitization of the genital area. In some cases, vaginal penetration can be painful for older women (see, for example, vaginismus). However, with the advent of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) treatments, the effects of menopause have lessened and women have more opportunities to continue experiencing an active sex life. Similarly, treatments for erectile dysfunction can make it possible for men to enjoy sexual activity again.

Health benefits
It has been suggested that an active sex life can increase longevity among the elderly. Positive sexual health in older age is slowly becoming more of a commonplace idea with the steady increase in the percentage of the older population. This population percentage increase requires placing more attention on the needs of this age group, including their ideas on sexual health, desires, and attitudes. This shift in attitudes and behaviors has combined with medical advances to prolong a sexually active life and change the landscape of aging sexuality.

Sexual health and expression reflects a physical, mental, and emotional need that affects individual health and intimacy quality for older couples’ relationships. Dr. Syme found that, "Having a sexual partnership, with frequent sexual expression, having a good quality sex life, and being interested in sex have been found to be positively associated with health among middle-aged and older adults."

There are a number of associated health benefits with practicing positive sexual health. Positive sexual health often acts as a de-stressor promoting increased relaxation. Researchers also report health benefits detailing decreased pain sensitivity, improved cardiovascular health, lower levels of depression, increased self-esteem, and better relationship satisfaction. The former could also imply the consequences of negative sexual health and lack of sexual activity, such as depression, low self-esteem, increased frustration, and loneliness.

Health risks and education 
There are already numerous health concerns linked primarily with aging, but when sex is added into consideration, this opens up discussion for many other related concerns. Sex and aging come with many challenges for the older population as well as their primary care providers. The task for these care providers is to accommodate to the changing needs of this older sexually active generation.

Common health conditions hindering older adults are illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, degenerative and rheumatoid arthritis, stroke, cancer, kidney disease, and spinal cord injury. These conditions heavily impact individual sex lives. Separate from these are physical concerns related specifically to sexual health and bodily functions. Researchers gathered that, "the most common concerns for older adult men include erectile dysfunction and premature climax, and older adult women most commonly report lack of desire, problems with vaginal lubrication, sexual pain, and inability to reach orgasm." Consideration of these aging-related health problems and sexual-related health problems together require primary care providers and professionals to be updated on the latest health findings and to know patients' needs and possible solutions.

A major problem with improving education and seeking solutions for aging sexual health risks is the lack of verbal discussion on these matters from older individuals. "Older adults often avoid seeking help for sexual concerns because of a lack of knowledge about their sexual problems, embarrassment or discomfort talking about sex, and stigma-related beliefs about older adults and sexuality in older age being inappropriate."

Another major problem with improving education and seeking solutions for aging sexual health risks was found after researchers looked at the readiness and training of 777 physicians and 452 nurse practitioners from the American Medical Association Masterfile. Researchers noted that amongst their representative sample there were reports of limited training in sexual health as a general topic. From this information, they assumed that "training that is specific to older patient’s sexual health is limited, if available at all."

The purpose of the study was to test how knowledgeable U.S. primary care providers were on the topics of sexual health and sexuality in older age. The results of the study showcased that U.S. health care providers on average were less knowledgeable than U.S. graduate nursing students on the topics of sexual health and aging sexuality. In a comparison survey, it is also worth noting that they were reported less knowledgeable than Turkish physicians and U.S. Ob/Gyns. However, the group reported to be even less knowledgeable on aging sexuality than U.S. primary care providers consisted of nursing home staffs and older adult care workers. Educated health providers are needed to educate the general public and older adults (active and inactive) on sexual health and healthy expression.

Sexually transmitted infections (STDs/STIs) can also be prevalent in later life, despite common misconceptions that STDs only affect younger people and groups. There has been a steady increase in the number of STDs found in elderly individuals in nursing homes and other residential living communities, belying the perception that elderly people do not engage in sexual activity. Many men in older age do not believe they need to use protection, such as condoms, as they age, and their partners often feel likewise, so it can be difficult to stress the importance of continued use of protection for elderly couples. One of the main reasons they develop this opinion is because of the decreased risk of pregnancy, but they often fail to acknowledge that protection is necessary to prevent the circulation of STDs.

Social attitudes

Sex between elderly people is often treated as a taboo by society. Cultural norms dictated social opinions which painted older adults as being asexual creatures. This opinion was supported and replicated in the media by showing sex only being popular among youth. This attitude has gradually changed because a greater number of people are reaching 55 and above, and are remaining sexually active far into their senior years. 

Back in 1930, less than 6 percent of the U.S. population was over 65 years old. By 1950, the number was 8 percent. By 2015, that number has risen to almost 15 percent. Population experts at the U.S. Bureau of the Census expect the percentage to continue to rise dramatically during the next 20 years, eventually reaching 21 percent by 2050, which is more than one in five. The number of seniors in the United States and throughout the world continues to increase rapidly.

While sexual activity itself is a sensitive topic due to its private nature, sexual activity between seniors is often treated with extra care. This attitude is especially common among younger people and it has been suggested that this may be caused by younger people's belief that the lust and ability to have sex diminishes once a perceived primary reason for sex is no longer present.

Even though the topic may be taboo or denied, sexuality in older age has gained visibility in the media. Some sources promote "active" and "healthy" sexuality among the elderly, or address issues such as sexuality in retirement homes and assisted living facilities. These representations create in turn social injunctions that position sexual activity as a marker of fulfillment, a discourse already affecting younger people and amplified by various products, pills, and available medical treatments.

Research conducted in the social sciences changes the miserable depiction often made of elders' sexuality. Quantitative and qualitative studies show that sexual satisfaction can improve with age, and they present data such as the following. Half of women are sexually active into old age. Widows either stop any kind of sexual activity, find a new male partner, or choose not to reproduce the same kind of relationship where they take care of a man, instead entering into a nonresidential relationship with a man or in a relationship with another woman, for example. Women and gay men sustain the most pressure to live up to beauty ideals associated with youth. LGBT people suffer from invisibility in retirement homes and assisted-living facilities.

Representation in film and television
To many, The Golden Girls was groundbreaking in its depiction of healthy active sexual lifestyles and frank sexual discussion among seniors.

The concept of active sexual relationships between older people has in recent years become a more mainstream topic. The film Something's Gotta Give, starring Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, explores the relationship that develops between two people in later life.

The HBO series Tell Me You Love Me has caused controversy by showing several explicit sex scenes involving two senior citizen actors on the show, Jane Alexander and David Selby. Presently old-aged sex is understood and increasingly accepted in society.

On a related topic, intergenerational relationships, also quite taboo, were the focus of the film Gerontophilia (between a very old and a very young man), and in the last years many TV shows represented "cougars" (middle age women with younger men), for example The Cougar and Cougar Town.

The Netflix original, Grace and Frankie, features Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as two elderly women recently divorced from their husbands seeking guidance through life with the help of each other. Not only does the show highlight their sexual quests and struggles with their new partners, it also mentions their new partnered business-seeking venture to encourage personal, private intimacy for women their age. The "Ménage à Moi", as they have it named, is a vibrator targeting elderly women to use for sexual satisfaction, and the show features the struggles surrounding marketing such a product.

References

Sexuality and age
Old age