Older men should use it or lose it

A new Finnish study of 1,000 older men over a five year period has found that the best way to preserve their sexual function was to engage in the business as often as possible.

The study published in the American Journal of Medicine reported that those men having regular sex at the start of the study were at lower risk of developing erectile dysfunction (ED) by the study’s end with the implication that men need to be encouraged to stay sexually active into their golden years.

The Finnish researchers at the University of Tampere studied 989 men who were between the ages of 55 and 75 at the outset. Those who said they had sex less than once a week were twice as likely to develop ED over the next five years compared to men who had sex at least once a week.

Almost 8% of men who reported having sexual intercourse less than once a week had ED, compared to 3.2% of men who had sex once a week. The incidence of ED among men who said they had sex three or more times a week was a lowly 1.6%.

Dr Juha Koskimaki, the research study leader, said that “regular intercourse has an important role in preserving erectile function among elderly men. Continued sexual activity decreases the incidence of erectile dysfunction in direct proportion to coital frequency”.