2 out of every 3 senior citizens sexually active: survey

Two out of every three Korean senior citizens are sexually active, and half of them frequent red-light districts, a survey by a state-funded consumer body shows.

As many as 66.2 percent of the questioned replied that they are currently enjoying sex, according to the survey conducted by the Korea Consumer Agency on sexual life of the elderly for 500 male and females aged 60 years or older.

The survey shows that 53 percent of those who are enjoying sex answered that they bought sex at brothels, indicating that half of Korean elderly has been waging a distorted sex life.

Buying sex in Korea is illegal but a considerable number of Koreans regard it as a necessary evil. Reflecting this, as many as 39.4 percent or 194 people replied that “it is necessary because they have no choice” and 15.6 percent or 77 persons replied that it is necessary. As small as 30.6 percent replied that they could not accept the purchase of sex.

Motels and inns are found to be major sex trading places (67.2 percent), followed by brothels (13.6 percent), massage parlors (10.2 percent), private homes(5.1 percent) and barber’s (1.1 percent).

A total of 168 persons or 50.8 percent of the sexually active elderly replied that they buy anti-impotence pills, with 55 percent of them using it to improve sexual function, 23.4 percent for curiosity and 19.9 percent for curing impotence.

The study found out that prostitution is closely linked to venereal diseases, with 75.6 percent of 122 senior citizens who suffered from diseases infected with sexual disease from their sex partners. Gonorrhea is the No. 1 sexual disease infecting 61 seniors of the questioned, followed by colpitis with 21 and syphilis with two.

“As a growing number of senior citizens enjoy sex, so the number of sex-related diseases increases, becoming a serious problem in the aging Korean society,” said an official of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which has commissioned the research. “We hope the the research outcome will be used in the policy on the problem of elderly people’s sex life.”

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