In Slate’s geezer-centric issue, Daniel Engber takes a lucid look at sexual activity — or, more likely, its prohibition — in an article titled "Naughty Nursing Homes." Engber cites an August 2007 article in the New England Journal of Medicine about sexual activity among older people. Some predictable findings: people who described themselves as healthy were more likely to be sexually active, women were less so then men, and sexual activity declines with age. But not so fast! Among respondents in the oldest-age group (75 to 85), a quarter were getting laid (many several times a month), and a third of those were also giving or receiving oral sex.
Things are far less frisky in nursing homes, because administrators are afraid of getting sued: informed consent is problematic in a population packed with dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. But there’s plenty of action nonetheless — and that’s among men and women who came of age before the sexual revolution. As Engber points out, "Within a few decades, nursing homes will be replete with the desires and expectations of almost 7 million liberated baby boomers.” For a preview of the unassisted mayhem this brings to an assisted living home full of horny boomers, check out Tim Sandlin’s Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty.
sandlin’s book is a great place to start if you’re trying to imagine what “retirement” might be like for boomers. my guess is that boomers will be delighted to see the portrayal of such a sex-positive future. their children on the other-hand are likely to go “ewwwwwwww” at the thought of their parents going randily into that good night.