If we don't change this predilection in physicians, we're essentially condemning elders with HIV to an early death. She said that 10 per cent of HIV cases were now in the elderly population. In the UK, sexually transmitted infections have increased across the board from 624,000 in 1990 to almost one and a quarter million in 1999 - the most recent figures. While in the whole population rates of gonorrhoea and syphilis have increased by 55 per cent since 1995, in the 65-plus age group the rise is more than 300 per cent. Years ago an older man who caught a dose of the clap from a prostitute would not be contacting his doctor.
People do insist in thinking that older people are asexual.
The male menopause panic has always made men run out and find a younger woman to prove they can still do it and now women are doing that too. More of our proactive work is focused on younger people because we know that is the biggest at-risk group, but we are presently compiling a report on sexual health which will give us the clearest picture to date of what is happening.