Geriatric Sexual Dysfunction: A Case Survey

This study examines questionnaire data obtained from a group of older persons with sexual dysfunction mistakenly referred through a newspaper column. These 35 respondents (28 men, seven women) were characterized by age (43–82 years), symptomatic sexual problems, and a willingness to write about them. They were chiefly men who had varying degrees of erectile failure and were negatively affected by the development of their problems. Two thirds had consulted a physician. The older subjects were more likely to be abstinent, to have total erectile failure (if men), to have known their physicians only a short time, and to describe their physicians as uninterested or pessimistic. Couples involving a medically ill wife, couples married for a long time, and couples who defined sexuality in a nonaffective way were less affected by the development of sexual difficulties. A small group of older men had become impotent because of prolonged abstinence related to lengthy illnesses of their wives. These findings indicate that some physicians show an age‐related bias in treating such patients; some contributory factors are outlined. The data may help clinicians in their counseling of such patients and in the identification of certain subgroups at risk. Directions are suggested for further systematic research.