epublishing store: Intro

Sexual Health eBook Volume2
Chapter 9

Sexual Changes in the Aging Male, Lawrence A. Siegel and Richard M. Siegel

The behavior of older adults, particularly sexual behavior, is more often the target of jokes and ridicule than the subject of serious scientific inquiry. As a result, there is limited information available describing men and their personal experiences with aging. No one really knows how and why people change as they get older. Some theorists suggest that aging is simply the natural process of “wear and tear” on body systems and the accumulation of everything we confront, from ultraviolet radiation to illness and injuries. Still, others see aging as a genetically predetermined course of individual biological existence, which is designed to have a definite beginning and a definite end. Aging, however, is an extremely complex and varied process that affects individuals—even specific body systems—quite differently. Unlike the developmental changes in adolescence, which can be pretty well predicted within a range of just a few years, each individual ages at a unique rate. Although there are several changes that commonly occur among the vast majority of people, they still occur at different rates and to varying extents. This leaves numerous questions about all aspects of the aging process, particularly as it takes place among men.

What does it mean to be a man? This remains a question that no generation has yet been able to answer or, perhaps, one for which there are too many answers. In ancient Greece a man was revered for his physical, youthful beauty and “manly” prowess: the young man; the warrior. At the same time, old age was equated with physical decay, worse than death itself. More contemporary descriptions of the male psyche speak of men in terms of Peter Pan–like syndromes, based on their fear of leaving adolescence and getting older. We see this yearning to retain our youth around us in virtually all popular media: look younger, be stronger, get harder. Virility is masculinity, and a real man is a virile man.

In 1996, the winds began to shift. With the entrée of Viagra (sildenafil), getting older was no longer such a daunting prospect for men. All of a sudden, we saw such iconic figures as Bob Dole extolling the virtues of the new “erection pill” while lusting after Brittany Spears in diet soda commercials. Sports figures soon joined the crusade, and it was not long before a multi-million-dollar industry for “natural male enhancement” emerged. Since then, we have seen more and more fit, gray-haired men exuding their masculinity. The older man had regained sexual prowess and was virile once more. For men of all ages, masculinity has been connected to the ability to perform sexually. This, in turn, has traditionally been related to power (a man unable to achieve or maintain an erection is still more commonly referred to as impotent, which literally means “powerless”).

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