Posted August 2, Reviewed by Lybi Ma. From the dawn of sex research in the s through the millennium, sexologists largely ignored late-life lovers. But most research on elder sex has been conducted in the U. How do older adults in conservative, sexually repressed countries adjust to growing older? Recently, a researcher in Krakow, Poland, answered this question using in-depth interviews with sexually active Polish elders. Contraception is legal, but often difficult to obtain.
Abortion is banned with limited exceptions. Gay marriage is prohibited. There is no school sex education. Few parents discuss sex with their children. The researcher interviewed 30 Poles, all heterosexual, all Catholic, 16 women, 14, men, ages 65 to 82 with an average age of Their education varied from high school to college.
Most were retired. Almost all were married, widowed, or divorced. Thirty interviews may not sound sufficient for scientific credibility, but robust literature shows that in studies based on lengthy interviews, after around two dozen, participants rarely raise significantly new issues.
The researcher asked how participants viewed sex decades earlier when they were young, and how they viewed it when interviewed. But it was their marital duty, and necessary for children, so they put up with it. The women agreed that sex for greater intimacy was a romantic fantasy , and that sex for pleasure was largely impossible, and if possible, questionable, suggesting sin, promiscuity, and infidelity. Where did they get these ideas? From their mothers, other girls, and the Church. None recalled ever questioning these beliefs.
The men had no idea that women might suffer sexual pain. Like the women, the men considered spousal emotional intimacy a romantic fantasy, an unnecessary distraction from the cornerstones of sexβintercourse and impregnation.
