Sex after midlife is a blast, says senior sex expert Joan Price

If you think sex after a certain age is a myth rather than a reality, you may be pleasantly surprised to find out that there are people having perfectly satisfying sex after midlife! Read on to find out why.

Sex after midlife can be a blast.

It’s a rare 70-year-old who is pleased rather than alarmed to be called a  “wrinkly sex kitten.“ Joan Price is that rare senior.

Some boomers are still having a blast between the sheets. Others, not so much.

Senior sex

If you’re a member of the Generation of Love who has lost your mojo, “Senior Sex Expert” Joan Price will help you get your groove back.

Or, if you’ve managed to hang onto that groove, she’ll tell you how to have a sex life that’s even groovier.

Price is a cheerleader for everything fun and erotic for those of us who are getting a little long in the tooth. She’s been blogging about senior sex for almost a decade.

She gives lectures, holds workshops and writes books about sex and aging. She has a Huffington Post column.

Las ventajas de tener sexo a partir de los cincuenta años son muchas: físicas, psicológicas y emocionales. Aquí te contamos tan sólo cinco.
Photo: Pexels

She’s amassed a wealth of nuts-and-bolts information about what does and doesn’t work when it comes to senior shenanigans that she’s eager to share.

She even reviews sex toys on her blog from a senior’s perspective. (She’s covered 70 so far.)

So what makes a sex toy senior-friendly?

“The last thing you want,” she tells me, “is to buy a vibrator, then get it home and find that the printed instructions are so small you can’t read them with your trifocals.

If the design isn’t so intuitive that instructions become  irrelevant, that print had better be readable.“

She also evaluates whether the grip is well-designed for a user with arthritic hands.

“I want intense vibrations,“ she explains, “but not in my wrist.” Nor should the toy turn itself off while the user is still turned on.

Reviewing sex toys? Nice work if you can get it, you might think.

Or you might think “ick!”

The “ick factor” is part of Price’s life. She shrugs it off. “The thought of seniors having sex makes some folks squirm,” she admits.

“They’d prefer to think that the moment you get your AARP card, your sex drive evaporates.“ Often, just the opposite is true.

“Sex can improve with age. We’re freer and more relaxed. We’ve learned what we like, and we’re better at communicating about it.”

Also Read: When Missed Periods May Mean Menopause

Las ventajas de tener sexo a partir de los cincuenta años son muchas: físicas, psicológicas y emocionales. Aquí te contamos tan sólo cinco.
Photo: Pexels

Sex can improve with age

But not always. Too many seniors, she says, have allowed our sexual energy to fade. And we do face plenty of challenges: Aging bodies. Retreating hormones.  Slow Arousal. Waning Libidos.

Not all of us are sitting in adjacent bathtubs on a hillside holding hands.

But Price believes we can enjoy great sex throughout our lives. And she’s on a mission to make that happen.

How did she fall into the sex advisor biz? She fell in love.

Price, a long-divorced former English teacher, was enjoying a second career as an aerobics instructor and freelance health and fitness writer.

She also taught line dancing. (Price has a lot of energy.) One day Robert Rice, a painter and arts administrator, joined the class.

It was a lightning bolt moment.  “When I first saw him,” she says. “I had to remember to keep breathing.”

Although she was 57 and he was 64, sex was “terrific from the get go,“ says Price, far better than she’d anticipated, given their ages.

But they still faced a few age-related challenges. Both needed more stimulation than when they were younger.

“Everything worked,“ she says. “but it all took much longer.“

There was also a certain amount of “That hurts my back.“ And  “That hurts my knees.“

Price looked around for books she could consult about having fabulous midlife sex.

“There weren’t any,” she says. “So I wrote one.”

Better Sex Than You Ever Expected

“Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk About Sex After Sixty”

Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk About Sex After Sixty” (Seal Press, 2006) part memoir and part sex manual, tells the story of Price’s  sexual reawakening and describes how the couple overcame their erotic challenges (Thanks, in part, to a vibrator they dubbed  “Dr. Ruth.)

The book did well, despite some pushback, including one snarky review, titled  “Now that Boomers Have Discovered There’s Sex After 60, Could they Please Stop Writing About It?”

“Not a chance,” was Price‘s response.

She next published  “Naked At Our Age: Talking Out Loud About Senior Sex” to answer the countless questions about their own sex lives readers had posted on her blog.

The book combines advice from therapists, doctors and other professionals with anecdotes and information Price culled from emails from and surveys sent to 150 men and women in their 60s who were happy with their sex lives.

The third book in Price’s “senior sex trilogy,“ was  “Ageless Erotica,” a light-hearted collection of smutty stories about seniors from all walks of life, gay and straight, vanilla and kinky, taking their clothes off and having some fun.

Las ventajas de tener sexo a partir de los cincuenta años son muchas: físicas, psicológicas y emocionales. Aquí te contamos tan sólo cinco.
Photo: Pexels

And coming this winter? “The Ultimate Guide to Sex After 50: How to Maintain — or Regain!- a Spicy, Satisfying Sex Life.” (Cleis Press).

Price wants to be the “go to” person when it comes to senior sex. And she’s very approachable.

“People come up to me all the time with questions about their sex lives,” she says.

“It’s not unusual for one of my line dancing students to wait around after class to ask me about erectile dysfunction. Or, after a book signing, a reader in her 70s might take me aside to talk about why the type of foreplay she craved in their 20s doesn’t rock her world anymore.”

It’s an interesting life, to be sure. And full of happy surprises. Like the “New York Times” reporter who phoned out of the blue to pick her brain for a story about pole dancing among suburban Boomers.

Or the reader who just emailed: “I’m on Chapter 4 and you may have just saved my marriage.“

While our bodies aren’t what they were, most of our sex problems, says Price, have solutions. Different techniques.  Positions that suit older bodies. Better lubricants. New toys.

(“If a Hitachi Magic Wand doesn’t work for you,” she says. “Don’t give up. Try an Eroscillator during partnered sex. With a marshmallow attachment!”)

Great sex, says Price, also requires honest communication. Which, for many of us, doesn’t come easily.

After all, we came of age in an era when  happily married TV couple Rob and Laura Petrie had to sleep in twin beds, and Lucille Ball, even with a baby bump the size of a beach ball, was forbidden, on air, to utter the word “pregnant.“

Sex was something we didn’t talk about

Sex after midlife is not a myth

Notwithstanding the sexual revolution, says Price, her Boomer audience, while eager to learn more about sex, can be uncomfortable discussing it.  

“I picture them inching toward me rather than flinging their arms out,” she says.

She tries to meet them halfway.  “I avoid graphic language. I use words that won’t shock. I put them at ease with warmth and humor.”  

And while she talks frankly about explicit topics, there’s nothing racy or provocative about her presentation.

“I’m here to educate,” she says. “Not to titillate.”

She’s also here to smash some stereotypes about seniors and sex. “We’re not asexual,” she says. “Far from it. Plenty of people over 50 are having the best sex of their lives.  If you aren‘t one of them, you could be.”

And if you aren’t partnered, Price says, you should enjoy sex with yourself.

“Experts recommend at least one orgasm a week…for genital health and for heart health,” she noted recently in a HuffPo column called “10 Tips For Hot Solo Sex.”

Sadly, husband Robert, the man to whom Price owes her sexual reawakening, died after they’d been together just 7 years.

These days? “I have a few favorite toys,” she says. “And some great memories. And I‘m starting to open to new relationships.”

She doesn‘t expect to find another Robert. But not because at 70, she’s too old for spicy sex. Far from it.

“I’m alive and sensual,” she asserts. “And life is starting to look good again.”  Who knows? That sexual lightning bolt might even strike twice.

If it does, she’ll know exactly what to do about it.

(This profile first appeared on www.womensvoicesforchange.org

Read also: At what age does a man stop ejaculating

Senior sex expert Joan Price writes books about how to get your groove on in midlife. Sex after midlife can be grand. Here is how. #sex #sextoys
Roz Warren

Roz Warren writes for the New York Times, the Funny Times and the Huffington Post, among others. And she’s been featured on the “Today Show.“ Twice! Roz is the author of Our Bodies, Our Shelves: A Collection of Library Humor. http://ow.ly/LpFgE.

8 Comments

  • Reply June 3, 2014

    joanpriceauthor

    I’m delighted to see Roz’s fabulous profile of me here! Thank you, Roz and Viva Fifty. And thank all of you for joining me on my mission to normalize and celebrate ageless sexuality!

    • Viva Fifty!
      Reply June 3, 2014

      Viva Fifty

      Joan, we loved it! And yes, sex is ageless, as are we! You have new fans now! 🙂

  • Joan Price is an inspiration. And “Ageless Erotica” is a fantastic read. I recommended it to someone who didn’t think there was a market for midlife/senior erotica.

    • Viva Fifty!
      Reply June 3, 2014

      Viva Fifty

      Thank you for reading and commenting. You know what we’re thinking … there is a market for stock photos of midlife and beyond people … it’s next to impossible to find photos of that age group that don’t look like they are very ill. 🙂

      • June 3, 2014

        Roz Warren

        Brilliant! SOmebody should start up a 50+ stock photo database. Maybe you??

      • Viva Fifty!
        June 3, 2014

        Viva Fifty

        I don’t think so … BUT … there is definitely a need for it!

  • Reply June 3, 2014

    Delfin

    Two anecdotes: I asked a student, a female in her 20s, what kind of women her father liked. “My father doesn’t like women.” “What” I shouted. “He only likes my mother” was her reply. I asked another in her 30s what type of men her mother liked: “My mother is 60” was the reply.
    Society tells us that married men do not like women, only their wives. Society tells us that 60-year-old women do not like men.
    Men have it harder than women. Older men are tagged as lecherous old goats.
    Oh, well… things will change if we all give it a try.
    Nice article.

    • Viva Fifty!
      Reply June 3, 2014

      Viva Fifty

      Thank you for reading it and for commenting. It’s funny how younger people think older people don’t have sex or lust … Until they get there themselves. 🙂

Leave a Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.