Biographie de l'auteur
Robert N. Butler, MD, (1927–2010) was the president and CEO of the International Longevity Centre–USA and a professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. The author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Why Survive?: Being Old in America and chair of the Council on Ageing of the World Economic Forum, he was a frequent adviser to international agencies, including the World Health Organization, and served as the medical editor in chief of Geriatrics for more than a decade.
Myrna I. Lewis (1938–2005) was a professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, as well as a social worker, gerontologist, and writer. She had a special interest in the social and health issues faced by midlife and older women, which she wrote about often with fellow gerontologist Robert Butler. Their work has been published in many highly regarded books and academic journals.
Présentation de l'éditeur
LIFE CAN BE RICH AND FULL--AT ANY AGE
You may be getting older but love and sex are still a vital part of your life. Here is the book that speaks to your concerns about sex beyond the middle years. Two leading experts have completely updated and revised the classic guide on the subject to address the needs of our changing world in the new millennium. Inside you'll find:
- The truth about aging and how it affects sexual desire and lovemaking
- A thorough guide to common medical problems--and solutions
- New drugs that can improve and enhance sexuality--including the latest on Viagra
- Research on post-menopausal changes
- A detailed look at the procedures for easing and solving sexual problems
- Practical strategies for finding new relationships and staying sexually fit
- Advice to help your adult children understand your new relationships
Extrait
The best authorities on whether love and sex can exist in later life are older people themselves. Frank and Marianne have been together forty-six years. They've led unremarkable lives in terms of success and lucky breaks and have had more than their share of tragedies. Yet in their late seventies they are enthusiastic, optimistic, and in love. Frank says of Marianne, "I love this woman more each day." Marianne replies, "I couldn't have asked for a better partner--he's kind, sweet, funny . . . he is everything a woman could want." Both are quick to add that it is their relationship that has been the core of their sense of satisfaction in life--and their sexual closeness is an indispensable part of their affection for each other. These two are not alone in their point of view. Any of us who has worked professionally with older people (or is older himself) could cite scores of examples of similar attitudes among older men and women, married or single.
Sound research data beyond the clinical observa-tions of those working
with older people is another story. The United States lacks a truly
comprehensive national survey of sexuality that encompasses the older
population. The available information includes the important but now
outdated and limited Kinsey studies (first published in 1948), the
physiologic investigations of Masters and Johnson, and the findings of
both the Duke Longitudinal Studies and the Baltimore Longitudinal Study
on Aging. Questionnaire surveys of self-reported sexual activity among
older people have been conducted by mail (for example, by Consumers
Union), but these provide information only on those who volunteer. Other
studies have age cutoffs for their subjects, usually at sixty or
seventy. The outcome is that facts and figures on the nature and
frequency of sexual activity among older persons, including its
association with marital and health status or any other variable in
people's lives, are unknown.
One thing is certain, however. Our society is in the midst of an immense
demographic change. Every day over six thousand Americans turn sixty.
Altogether, forty-five million people or one out of every six of us are
sixty or older. By the year 2006 baby boo
