STIs aren’t just a young person’s problem and adults over 60 are being left out of the conversation.

Sexual health messaging has long focused on younger people, but one of the fastest growing groups for new STI and HIV diagnoses in the United States is adults over 60. In retirement-heavy communities like The Villages, where social calendars are full and dating is common, that reality is becoming impossible to ignore.

According to data from the CDC, AARP and multiple studies over the past several years, people over 55 are remaining sexually active longer than any previous generation. Many are widowed, divorced or entering new relationships later in life. Desire does not disappear with age, but sexual health education often does.

Teresa Giles, with Hope & Help, a nonprofit focused on HIV and STI prevention and treatment, says the misconception that older adults are not sexually active creates a dangerous gap in education.

“We don’t often think about older adults staying sexually active, but they are,” she says. “People are social, they’re dating and they’re forming new relationships. That’s normal.”

What is not normal, she says, is how little sexual health information is directed at this age group.

Many adults in their 60s and 70s grew up in a time when sex was not openly discussed and STI education was minimal. Condoms were associated with pregnancy prevention, not disease prevention. Once people passed childbearing age, protection often fell off the radar.

“There’s this assumption that STIs don’t apply anymore,” Teresa says. “People think they’re past that stage of life or that because they were married for decades they don’t need to think about it.”

That changes quickly when a longtime partner dies or a marriage ends. Suddenly people are dating again, sometimes for the first time in 30 or 40 years, without current information about sexual health risks.

At Hope & Help, staff see the consequences.

“We’ve found an alarming number of people over 55 testing positive for STIs,” she says. “They’re not doing anything wrong. They just didn’t think about protection or regular testing.”

Age also affects how the body responds to infection. Immune systems weaken over time and many older adults take multiple medications. Infections can take longer to clear and treatments may interact with existing prescriptions.

That is why Hope & Help focuses on age-appropriate sexual health education. For older adults, that means going back to basics. What STIs exist today. How they are transmitted. How the body responds now versus decades ago. It also includes correcting myths, such as the belief that oral sex carries no risk or that shared items do not need to be cleaned.

Just as important is normalizing testing.

“At Hope & Help, anyone can come in for free HIV or STI testing,” Teresa says. “When people know their status, they can take care of themselves and their partners.”

As conversations about senior sexuality continue, especially in places like The Villages, Teresa hopes the focus shifts from gossip to education.

“Sexual health doesn’t stop at a certain age,” she says. “And neither should the conversation.”

• Adults 55 and older are one of the fastest growing groups for new HIV diagnoses in the U.S.
• Many people in this age group did not receive comprehensive sexual health education when they were younger
• Common STIs affecting older adults include chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes and HIV
• Aging immune systems and multiple medications can make infections harder to treat
• Regular testing and prevention education significantly reduce transmission

Source: CDC, AARP, Hope & Help
Visit https://hopeandhelp.org for more information.