Senior men and the hidden issue of the opportunities given by Viagra
In the yearly ages, humans lived short lives, many died before they got old. These were simple times. Then development of medicine actually began to make a difference to people's lives. That and also the fact that food became a lot more plentiful and cheaper. Adding improvement in diet and better medicine together, humans start to live longer. This has produced an interesting social phenomenon. Women have always lived longer than men and his has meant most living single lives without anyone to keep them company. But now more men are living longer, this is changing the sexual landscape for older people. There are a lot more opportunities for men to find partners. More importantly, if the men are willing, they are likely to find more than one partner.
The pattern seems to be that older men prefer stability in relationships but, if their partners die, loneliness forces them out into the world. Many of these men are relatively inexperienced but, if they find the right places and ways they can find themselves in demand. In a sense, this is a mixed blessing. It's good because it can overcome a lack of self-confidence. When men were growing up more than fifty years ago, dating and sex were more difficult. If a woman more directly signals availability today, this takes the pressure of the man. With erectile dysfunction pills to hand in case of difficulty, men can quickly find themselves in relationships. But there's one further issue.
Seniors come from a time when there was less discussion of sex and certainly little encouragement to wear condoms. The reason for relatively low levels of sexually transmitted disease fifty years ago was there was less sexual activity with multiple partners. With those attitudes in place, many men are now discovering there's a real risk of sexually transmitted disease today. Trying to persuade inexperienced men to wear condoms is not easy because they are not conveniently grouped together in High School. Finding them before they get an STD is next to impossible. However, once they realize the problem, most are quick to understand the need for protection. It's all somewhat ironic. These are the people who, just a few years ago, might have advised their children to lead lives of abstinence until they married. Now they are single again, and are in the market for both condoms and Viagra. Of course, the motivation is different form fear of unwanted pregnancies as in young couples. Now it's just a desire to stay healthy with no embarrassing diseases in their golden years and live as long asthey are able to.
Thus, for the men who refuse to take into account the warnings, there's a statistic that might encourage greater caution. There's a slow but steady increase in the number of older men being diagnosed with HIV. The most recent figures are for 2009. More than 3,000 new cases were confirmed in the age range 50-54, 2,000+ cases in the range 55-59, 900 cases in the range 60-64 and almost 750 cases in men over 65. Though Viagra is a great way to keep sexual activity even in one's old years everyone should practice self-defense by using condoms.