The “Sex and the City” generation constantly has the finger pointed at them for glamorising promiscuity, and women are having sex younger than ever, but it’s over 50s who are most likely to have a one night stand.
A recent survey of 3300 Australians by dating website RSVP found that while two to four dates is the average number of meetings before getting into bed, Australians singles over 51 years are the most likely age group to have sex on date number one — significantly more than any other age group.
On the first date with a woman aged 51-plus the likelihood of getting lucky is 20 percent, compared with only 14 percent of Gen X or Y singles willing to have sex after only one meeting.
But as well as having all the fun, older women are also putting themselves at risk.
A 2009 survey by Family Planning NSW found that women over 40 are less likely to use condoms with new partners than their younger counterparts.
With that knowledge the latest figures on STIs are no surprise, showing the number of new chlamydia cases in people 40 and above has doubled since 2005.
Dr Deborah Bateson from Family Planning NSW puts it down to a lack of sex education targeted at this age group.
“People in their 60s are not part of the ‘condom generation’ and would have been experimenting with sexual relationships in the 1970s, many years before HIV and the grim reaper campaign of the late 1980s hit the public’s consciousness,” she says.
“Older people may not feel comfortable discussing condoms and STI issues with their partner or with their GP and they certainly don’t want to talk about it with their children.”
Dr Bateson also recognises that the increase in STIs may be due to greater numbers of Australians meeting new sexual partners later in life, and a feeling of ‘invincibility’ among women who have gone through menopause.
“They don’t have the added incentive of using condoms to prevent an unintended pregnancy,” she says.
Calls for a need for more safe sex education and awareness in older Australians have been echoed by RSVP, who together with Family Planning NSW will host a safe sex campaign aimed at over 40s and assist in distributing ‘safe sex packs’ to mature women.
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