Free condoms for over-60s
NHS launches ‘jiggle, wiggle’ scheme to stop pensioners spreading diseases
FREE condoms are being offered to pensioners in a bid to cut sexually transmitted infections among older people.
The contraceptives will be available at GP surgeries, community centres and food banks as part of a three-month NHS campaign called ‘Jiggle, Wiggle’.
Rebecca Spencer, general manager of the project, said: ‘Although most STIs are diagnosed in people aged 15 to 24, STIs are not just prevalent in young people. If you’re having sex, looking after your sexual health matters.
‘We want to make residents aware that sexual health services are not just for young people – they are for all people.’
Most areas already provide free condoms for those under the age of 25.
But the new campaign in Derbyshire specifically targets people from their 30s to their 60s and beyond for the first time. It comes after a report by the International Longevity Centre UK suggested most people’s sex lives improve from middle age.
Interviews with more than 7,000 over-50s found sexual satisfaction improves through the 50s, 60s, 70s and even 80s. Couples become closer, with stronger emotional bonds and increasing sexual compatibility.
Although people tend to have sex less often as they get older, it is likely to get better as couples progress through retirement and into old age, the researchers found. They discovered that women, in particular, find it easier to become aroused in their 80s than in their 60s or 70s.
The scientists, from the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University, suspect this is partly because relationships strengthen with age, meaning that even older couples can get to know each other better. Guidelines published by the Royal College of Nursing last year suggested care homes should set aside private rooms for elderly residents to have sex.
The guidance issued to care staff stresses that advancing age ‘in no way prevents older individuals and couples enjoying sexual activity, sexual intimacy or coitus’.
Homes should ensure there is a private area with double beds and ‘do not disturb signs’, it said.
But with unwanted pregnancies no longer a problem in old age, pensioners are less likely to use protection, leaving them vulnerable to infections.
Public Health England statistics show STIs among this group are rising as a result.
Among men over 65, a total of 216 were diagnosed with gonorrhoea in 2017, compared with 173 in 2016. Meanwhile, a quarter more women of the same age were diagnosed with herpes in 2017 than 2016.