Sex Pill-Popping Seniors At Higher Risk of STDs

For some people who are in their 30s, to think of one day being in their 60s and 70s is kind of a murky thought. We know it will happen one day. It is after all, inevitable. But the concept is kind of hard to grasp. My parents are in their 60s and I think of them as being in this superior hemisphere where wisdom reigns and experience is king; this is a much different landscape than the 30s where residents there are just beginning to get their bearings straight and are lucky if they have already paid off their student loans. Naturally, I don’t think of sexually transmitted diseases as running rampant across the senior population, especially with people like my parents who, in my mind, have never had sex because the stork literally brought me to them. In actuality, however, seniors still need to be concerned about contracting and transmitting sexually transmitted diseases.

According to physicians in the United States, the risk of getting infected with a sexually transmitted disease is actually higher for those senior men who take drugs like Viagra that help with erectile dysfunction. In fact, compared to those senior men who do not take these drugs, the risk is double. This does not leave those non-medicated seniors without risk, however. The number of cases of STD infections in this population has risen considerably since a decade ago. In fact, for those men in their 40s and higher, the percentage has crept up almost 50% since 1996.

The head of this recent study, Dr. Anupam B. Jena, stated, “Younger adults have far more STDs than older adults, but the rates are growing at far higher rates in older adults.” While researchers have not quite pinpointed the main reason for this steady increase, some are speculating that the rising divorce rate and overall better health for those in this age group may be contributing factors. Jena states, “We are typically unaccustomed to practice safe sex over the age of 50, because the risk of pregnancy is eliminated.” Because of this, those in their 50s are virtually six times less likely to consistently and correctly use condoms during sex compared to men that are in their 20s.

Jena and her fellow researchers wanted to test whether drugs like Viagra may take some responsibility for the increase of STDs in the senior population. To do so, they combed through close to one and a half million insurance records of men over the age of 40. Of this data, the most common sexually transmitted disease was HIV. This was followed closely by syphilis, Chlamydia and gonorrhea. The data suggested that drugs like Viagra did not seem to play a part in the increase of sexually transmitted diseases as many men in the study had already been tested and treated for a sexually transmitted disease before they ever filled their erectile dysfunction medication prescriptions. One thing to note, however, was that the risk of getting an STD was double for those men who took these types of drugs. Jena stated, “These users have a different sexual risk profile than non-users.” The study is a reminder that “sex after age 40 years is not necessarily safe.” Jena also strongly urged doctors who prescribe erectile dysfunction drugs to older men to discuss safe sex with them. Jena advises the senior population, “Look, just realize that you are at higher risk for STDs, and try to be careful like you used to be 30 years ago.”

Program Designed to Cut Teen Delinquency Also Cut Pregnancy Rate

In a surprising twist of fate, a program meant to help decrease criminal mischief amongst teenagers has also been determined to cut the teenage pregnancy rate. The study was spearheaded by David Kerr, an assistant professor at Oregon State University, and Leslie Leve and Patricia Chamberlain, both from the Oregon Social Learning Center. This study was funded by grants from both the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

There were over 160 teenaged female participants in the study between the ages of 13 and 17, all of whom had a history of criminal behavior and had been ordered to receive treatment out-of-home. The girls of the study were assigned randomly to one of two options. In one option they would run through the MTFC (Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care) program which consisted of the girls being provided one-on-one care with foster parents who had been thoroughly trained in the system. The other option consisted of the very same treatment and services they would have received without the study, which normally consisted of being treated in a facility that provided group care.

Kerr feels that the results were staggering. Of those girls who participated in the regular group care, approximately 47% of them became pregnant compared to just over 25% of those teenaged girls who ran through the MTFC program. Kerr stated, “These girls are extremely compromised. They are not doing well. They have had a hard time in different areas, including criminal behavior, drugs and risky sexual activity. Many of them had already been pregnant before the time of the intervention.” Kerr goes on to state that despite the fact that, overall, the teenage pregnancy rate has declined in the past few years, the U.S. still ranks high when compared to other similar nations. On top of that, teenaged girls in the foster care system have an even higher pregnancy rate, and almost never buy condoms. In one recent survey, it was suggested that in three U.S. states, close to 50% of the girls within the foster care system had become pregnant at least once by the time they reached 19 years of age.

The mission of the MTFC program is to place these at-risk teenaged girls in foster parent homes that are very supervised and trained in ways to work better with youngsters considered at-risk. These foster parents were also allowed frequent consultations and a support system to help in their quest to provide excellent care. Kerr states, “One of the most interesting aspects of this research is that the MTFC program was created to reduce crime, not pregnancy. It specifically targeted changing the girl’s environment: her home, her peers and her school experience. The focus was on giving her lots of supervision, support for responsible behavior, and consistent, non-harsh consequences for negative behavior. And this worked to reduce pregnancy rates.”

Kerr states that for the study, each teenage girl and her foster parent/s were given interviews both one and two years into the study. Of those participants in the MTFC program, there was a noticeable reduction in criminal behavior and teenage pregnancy cases, as well as an increase in school involvement.

Fathers’ Increased Supervision Affects Teens Risky Sexual Behavior

This morning when I was reading the local newspaper, I crossed a piece about a child who was taken into state custody after it was alleged that her mother had injured her. One of the people who commented on the piece asked where the young child’s father was in all of this and then listed a series of astonishing statistics concerning fatherless homes; children from fatherless homes are 32 times more likely to become runaways, 9 times more likely to drop out of school, 10 times more likely to abuse drugs and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. A few weeks ago in Sunday School, our teacher also mentioned that children whose fathers went to church with them every Sunday were twice as likely to continue the practice throughout their own lives and throughout the lives of their own children. Where many times fathers tend to get put on the back burners when talks of children and their upbringing come up, the facts show that fathers are especially impactful in the raising of their children. A new study stemming from combined resources at Harvard University, Boston College and the University of Pittsburgh shows that fathers step up their efforts to supervise their children when they discover their children have engaged in risky sexual behavior.

This recent study had over 3,000 teenaged participants between the ages of 13 and 18 and followed them for a span of four years. These participants came from a larger survey called the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth which serves to sample American teenagers. In this recent study, the teenage participants answered questions on how informed their parents were of their friends and their activities. If the teenage participant was age 14 or older, the survey also included questions on sexual behavior, including how often they engage in sexual activity, how many partners they have and whether or not they used contraceptives like condoms to protect themselves.

Findings from the study show that mothers and fathers react differently concerning the sexual behavior of their child/children. This study showed that when parents found out their child was experimenting with sexual behavior deemed risky, fathers, in particular, became more involved in their child’s life and strove to inquire and learn more about the activities and friends of their child. These results are much different than previous research efforts which suggest that parents become hostile and less involved in their child’s life upon finding out their child has engaged in sexual activities.

For those of you who participate in frequent family activities, bravo! Results from this study also show that children who are involved in various family activities are more shielded from engaging in risky sexual behavior. Some examples include teenagers who regularly eat dinner together with their families and those who participate in fun family projects/activities. Rebekah Levine Coley, the lead author of the study, states, “This research highlights the complex interplay of relationships between parents and their adolescent children. Given the notably negative potential repercussions of risky sexual activity during adolescence, this study can inform efforts to increase parents’ oversight of and active engagement with their teenage children.”