Just like when they were in grade school, Diana Dunbar isn’t shy about pulling out a condom and showing her patients how to apply it correctly. She shows how to keep the right side up and roll it down.
Some of her patients are teens and young adults, but she also focuses on educating older adults aged 45 and older. Some of them are women who recently have been widowed and are exploring the dating world after being married for decades. Others are older adults who have remained single, reinitiated relations, and tested positive for HIV or a sexually transmitted infection (STI).
“When it comes to sex, the biggest misconception about older people is they can’t get it, and they don’t have it, she said.
Dunbar, a coordinator of sexual health for The Wellness Medical Centers, travels to the central locations to educate people who have been newly diagnosed with HIV, are living with HIV and not taking their medication, or dealing with a newly diagnosed STI. She focuses on breaking down barriers to healthcare access in underserved communities in Detroit and Southeast Michigan, and as part of that, she teaches sexual health to seniors.
It’s essential to work. In 2020, 10,863 people were living with HIV in Detroit. Of those, 334 people were newly diagnosed with HIV. In 2021, rates for people aged 358.5 per 100,000 and 132.7 per 100,000 people aged 60 and older in Michigan. Surprising numbers of seniors are newly diagnosed or are living with HIV.
Over the years, STI diagnoses like HIV have grown within the aging community because adults in their golden years are less likely to get tested. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over half of the people in the United States diagnosed with HIV were aged 50 and older. In contrast, those rates decreased to 10% in 2020.
Newer rates are not yet available for Detroit, but Dunbar suspects those numbers will have increased during the pandemic.
Often, she hears the same message from older men: “I don’t need a condom; I’m too old for that.”
She tells them that if they are blessed enough to be sexually active at that age, they do need them. “You can have sex until the day you die, so you still need them.”
Dunbar said she feels like a completely new population of Detroiters folks are dating and reinitiating their sexual lives. So, she tailors her talks to address seniors’ sexual health throughout the city. “Of course, we want these classes to be fun and exciting, and we want them to learn to make their sexual intimacy fun.”
Open dialogue is also a significant factor in her practice. So, she speaks to her patients as if they are old friends, concentrating on the language they would use on the street and explaining facts after listening to how they express themselves.
One issue is that older men in their 50s,60s, and beyond are mating with younger women in their 20s and 30s. She said that older women in their 50s, 60s, and 70s partner with younger men in their 30s and 40s, dating younger women they don’t know about.
Numbers of infections also are up in what may be surprising places such as nursing homes, where pregnancy is no longer a concern. She offers free condoms, lubricants, dental dams, and other tools for safer sex at her office. She encourages anyone interested to get them by calling her at (313) 875-5131.
“Education for sexually active seniors is key,” she said. “So much has changed since they had sex education in school, and they need to be updated on what is happening now.”
About Post Author
