Sex and aging Flashcards
(41 cards)
What percent of Canadian adults marry?
95%
Many never married adults live in ________ relationships?
Common law relationships
What is the increasingly common alternative to marriage?
Cohabitation, living together (possibly in a common-law relationship).
Do cohabiting couples have more or less sex than married couples?
More!
What are some common problems after marriage? (3) (these are for heterosexual and homosexual marriage)
- Negotiating roles
- Sexial problems may become more of a source os dissatisfaction once rose-coloured glasses come off
- Hard to find time for sex in age of dual earners
What is a decline in sex after first year of marriage called?
Habituation
Decline in ongoing years may reflect physical factors that can occur due to aging
What is sexual activity between a person in a committed relationship and someone other than that person’s partner called?
Extradyadic sex
This does not necessarily mean cheating or infidelity
What are four circumstances where extradyadic sex can occur?
- Accidental
- Romantic infidelity
- Open relationship/marriage
- Philanderers
How many people engage in extramarital sex?
Not as many as you’d think.
25% men
15% women
Rates vary across the country
What is it called where married couples exchange partners with each other or include a third partner?
Swinging
How has technology most impacted extradyadic sex?
Internet infidelity
What does equity theory say about extramarital sex?
People mentally calculate the benefits and costs for them in a relationship of extradyadic sex
What is it called when someone has more than one simultaneous intimate relationship?
Polyamory
How long do widowed and divorced women who have postmarital sex begin a relationship after end of marriage?
1 year
If postmarital sex doesn’t occur in one year, likeliness of postmarital relationship drops.
Which are more sexually active after a marriage? Men or women?
Men
What are 3 myths about sex and aging?
- Sex is for the young
- Older people are not able to enjoy sex
- Older people are physically unattractive and therefore sexually undesirable
What is the period of change where both genders experience hormonal decline during midlife?
The climacteric
What are seven signs of a climacteric in men?
- Gradual decline in amount of bio-available testosterone
- Decrease in the urgency of sexual desire
- More difficult to gain and maintain an erection
- Less rigid erection
- Increased refractory period
- REduced force and volume of ejaculate
- More stimulation required may improve control over orgasm
When does testosterone in men begin declining?
Around 40
What are six signs of a climacteric in women?
- Thinning of vaginal wall
- Reduced elasticity of the vagina
- Less engorgement of labia
- Reduced vaginal and uterine contraction during orgasm
- Slowing and reduced vaginal lubrication
- Menopause (the end of menstrual periods)
What are three factors that increase sexual desire in people after the climacteric?
- No fear of pregnancy
- Improved ejaculatory control
- More privacy, time and money
What is the discrimination of elders called?
Ageism
What are 6 sociocultural factors for negative opinions of sex and the aging?
- Ageism
- Institutions that provide no opportunity for sex among elders
- Social perception of sex among elders as ‘cute,’ troublesome or disagreeable
- Perception of elders as vulnerable
- Social isolation
- Lack of a partner
Who are more likely to not have a partner as they age?
Women, men die quicker.
