Your Sex Life at 60+

The good news in your 60s:  You’re savoring your relationship, and the sex may be better than ever. (Yes, it’s true.)

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The reality check in your 60s: The key to romantic success is understanding that both of you are experiencing body changes.

• Your relationship status is happy ... In your 60s, your enhanced social intelligence and ability to compromise make living together easier. A whopping 98 percent of people in their late 60s say they are “very” or “pretty” happy with their marriage. Yes, the divorce rate for Americans age 65-plus has tripled since the 1990s, but the bottom line is that only about 6 in 1,000 older spouses are calling it quits.  

• This makes your heart happy, too. Marital satisfaction can protect women and men from health issues such as diabetes, depression and heart disease later in life. 

• You’re having a great time in bed. A study of older women (median age 67) in the American Journal of Medicine found that sexual satisfaction in women increases with age, and the majority of women in their 60s reported achieving orgasm most of the time or always. And the 2017 Singles in America survey of more than 5,000 single adults, sponsored by Match.com, discovered that the age of greatest sexual satisfaction was 66 for women and 64 for men. 

• But staying healthy is important. People who gave their health top ratings were 30 to 50 percent more likely to still be sexually active in their 50s, 60s and 70s than were those in poor health, according to an in-depth study of 6,037 American women and men. And if good health leads to more sex, then it makes sense that more sex is good for your health.

• The more sex you have now, the lower your risk for dementia in your later years. (And no, that’s not a come-on.) A 2018 study in the Journals of Gerontology looked at 73 participants ages 50 to 83. Each underwent a cognitive assessment and answered a questionnaire on general health and lifestyle. Researchers reported that weekly sexual activity was a significant predictor of higher cognitive function. 

• Most men are still performing just fine ... About 33 percent of men in their 60s report erectile problems, and more than half of men never develop them. The biggest risk to potency may be prostate illness: Men with prostate cancer are 10 to 15 times more likely to experience sexual dysfunction.