Sexual Diseases Surge In Over-45s

A new study showed that the rate of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in people above 45 years has more than doubled in less than ten years; one reason cited is practicing unsafe sex.

Internet dating, erectile dysfunction drugs, relationships changes could be party blamed for the rise of STIs in the middle aged people. Older women past the age of pregnancy tend to forget about the sexually transmitted infections and have unsafe sex without checking their partners' histories.

The researchers looked at the cases of STIs in the 45 year and above people (most of them straight men and women) at the West Midlands clinics between 1996 and 2003. They found that sexually transmitted infections were up by 127% with genital warts and herpes the most commonly found infections. And males over 45, accounted for 67 percent of all cases.

The authors also revealed that the cases of chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis all rose sharply.

The study, published online in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections found that women in the ages of 45 to 54 years and men in the ages of 55 to 60 years had the highest rate of STIs among all age groups in their sex.

During the period of the study the numbers of infections identified in younger age groups rose to 97 percent and on the other hand, those identified in the over 45s rose to 127 percent.

Study author, Babatunde Olowukure, of the Health Protection Agency in Birmingham and team wrote: "There has been a significant increase in the overall rate of STIs in older adults over the last few years, but little published research to inform public health policy, which remains youth focused.

"The results of this study, together with evidence from a number of other studies, would indicate that sexual risk-taking behaviour is not confined to young people but also occurs among older people."

Julie Bentley, Family planning expert said, "It's imperative that we move away from the equation that sexual health equals young people."

In one of the study conducted in UK, researchers looked at the risk taking behavior in older population. The study included the people aged up to 59 years and found that older men were more involved in 'sexual risk taking behavior'. The group of people with multiple sexual partners were old unmarried male, who did not believed in using condoms.

In last few years, there has been a large surge in the number of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the UK. STIs are diseases that can be transmitted by unsafe sex and people of any age can be infected by it.

It’s not necessary that people with STI will have signs and symptoms of the condition; many times they don’t present any sign or symptoms but still have the disease. If a person does present certain symptoms, these may include increased discharge, sores, blisters, warts, rashes, irritation or itching near the genitals or anus, pain during sex, pain on passing urine, or needing to pass urine more often or ulcers.

If left undetected or untreated, STIs may lead to serious complications in later years such as gonorrhoea and chlamydia may lead to pelvic inflammatory disease in women damaging the fallopian tubesdefine and causing pain, ectopic pregnancies and infertility. Men can also experience complications, such as inflammation in the testicles or prostate gland, and painful erections.

Chlamydia and gonorrhoea are caused by micro-organisms such as bacteria while genital herpesdefine, genital warts, HIVdefine, hepatitis B are caused by viruses. These infections can be passed from one person to another during intimate physical contact. Oral sex, vaginal sex, non-penetrative genital contact and sharing of sex toys between partners can all transmit an infection.