Less than a week after the release ofa major study by Inserm and the ANRS (Regional Health Agency) on the sexuality of the Frenchthe village hall of Beaumont-en-Véron, in Chinonais, hosted a day dedicated to seniors. According to this study, 56.6% of women and 73.8% of men remain sexually active between the ages of 50 and 89.
Intimate life after the age of sixty, a generally taboo subject, approached first by artists then around professionals. Many spectators, around a hundred, took their places in front of the stage. Lots of couples, and lots of white or graying hair.
Less frequent intercourse, but active sexuality
Maryse and Michel are in their seventies. They will soon celebrate their fifty years of marriage, and have seen their sexuality change little by little. “It’s not the same rhythm anymore. We’re no longer twenty years old, the body is getting old!” smiles Michel. Less performance, but that’s not necessarily bad news, explains Maryse, his wife: “it’s longer, with a lot of tenderness. And now we know each other, we know what we and the other like.”
Same observation for Chantal and Gilles, retirees who enjoy their sexuality every day: “the sexual act is prepared in advance, with small, tender, everyday gestures. It’s not by snapping your fingers, in ten minutes!” exclaims Gilles. “Libido declines with age” testifies Chantal. “We may want to do so less often, but the reports are more qualitative.”
Some seniors have a very active sex life, since according to the Inserm and ANRS study, 63% of women and 42% of men between 70 and 79 years old report having had sexual intercourse in the last four weeks. .
A piece that rings true
To put the subject on the table, a dance and theater piece was performed before the round table. It is the company of Young Feather Theater in Avoine who played his show Blow on the embers. Three quarters of an hour of dance and theater to stage the testimonies of elderly people. Homosexuality, masturbation, asexuality, illness, reduced performance… Questions about the sexuality of seniors also match those of other age groups.
This is why Marion Charrier, the actress, felt comfortable addressing the sexuality of seniors. “The questions are exactly the same as at all ages of life, adolescence, adult… Being thirty years old and no sexuality is completely ok, and being ninety years old and a fiery libido is is good too!” laughs the young actress.
After the show came a time for discussion, but the group was too large for the floor to be freed, regrets Chantal. “Taking the microphone in front of a hundred people to confide about your sexuality is complicated.”
So Gaëlle Donnadieu, psychologist in the geriatrics department of Tours University Hospital, stayed to answer questions from spectators. “In the hospital, the question of sexuality comes up from patients, particularly in rehabilitation. They wonder if, with the loss of autonomy, sex is still possible. These are difficult subjects to discuss with patients but it comes as the interviews progress. So, we can direct towards solutions, particularly medical ones: medications exist for erectile dysfunction, or for women for natural lubrication.
But the psychologist insists: “It is not because we are eighty years old that sexual desire no longer exists, that we must deny it. It remains throughout life.”
