Is there sex after 70?

00:00 05:04

Cosmo Landesman has narrated this article for you to listen to.

When I turned 70 in September, I had a panic attack. I was certain that my romantic life was over. I’d finally crossed over from middle-age into old age and had joined that sad tribe of the unshaggable. My time as a fun-loving lothario was at an end. Goodbye hot wild monkey sex – hello hot cocoa.

These days, thanks to my chronic arthritis of the knee, I can’t raise my leg, much less get it over

Concerned female friends told me I was guilty – once again – of premature self-pity. They assured me that there was sex – and plenty of it – after 70. And just as smokers and boozers love to tell the story of the aunt or uncle who smoked and drank all the time and still lived till 100, so friends told me the story of some aunt or uncle who was still having affairs at 85.

I understand their motives: they wanted to give me hope. But I can’t help feeling that these tales are just urban legends. I’ve never met one of these 100-year-old booze and fag guzzlers – or one of these old geezers still getting their leg over. These days, thanks to my chronic arthritis of the knee, I can’t raise my leg, much less get it over.

I know some readers, especially younger ones, might find this whole topic rather yucky. (But if the polls are to be believed, Gen Z aren’t too keen on sex.) The subject of sex and older people – and I mean those in their seventies and beyond – is shrouded in silence. Why? Because society is disgusted at the very idea of old people having sex.