Why STDs Are Skyrocketing Among Older Adults

Why STDs Are Skyrocketing Among Older Adults

By Katie Kerns, Senior Editor
Grownups these days! As STD rates rapidly increase among the 50-and-older set, experts are trying to pinpoint why.

According to recent research, there’s one particular age group that may be in need of safe-sex refresher courses — and it’s probably not the group you’d expect: Older adults.

The rate of sexually transmitted diseases among 45- to 65-year-olds has skyrocketed in recent years, researchers from Kings College and Saint Thomas’s Hospital in London reported on Thursday in the Student British Medical Journal.
In fact, statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that, among 45- to 65-year-olds, STD rates have nearly tripled over the past decade.

Take syphilis, for example: ABC News reports that in 2000, there were 885 known cases of the infection among this age group, according to CDC statistics. In 2010, however, there were more than 2,500 cases. Chlamydia cases have climbed too — from 6,700 in 2000 to more than 19,000 in 2010 — and rates of gonorrhea and HIV diagnoses have also increased.

What’s going on? The researchers aren’t exactly sure, but they have pinpointed a few potential culprits. Read more