Blush: Seniors

If you think having “the Talk” with your children is weird (try the card game Blush to help with the conversation!), how would you feel about having that same conversation with your newly divorced or widowed parent?

This article from Arti Patel on Boom 99.7’s website has a bunch of statistics, including that both chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis cases have all increased between the years 1980 and 2015 (the most recent national data). And while seniors aren’t experiencing all that many STIs, the fact that there are still reports of any cases is worrying.

Joan Price, sex advocate and author of The Ultimate Guide to Sex After 50: How to Maintain – or Regain! – a Spicy, Satisfying Sex Life, says the reason why the community has high STI rates is simple: they’re not using condoms.”

Patel, 2017

So I did some calculations. If a person is 60 today, they were born in 1957. Add 14 (the approximate age for sex education), and you get 1971. What was sexual education in Canada like in 1971?

A depiction of a classroom in stereotypical Canada, circa 1970. Image from www.macleans.ca

This was actually an interesting topic to research. I found a pretty great resource here (page 387), but here’s the most important part:

“During the 1960s and 1970s, most students in Canadian schools received little, if any, sexual health education. During this period, information about sexuality was often provided in programs called “Family Life Education” (FLE), which focused on human reproduction, puberty, and, in some cases, birth control.”

Pearson, p 387

Note that there is no mention of STIs. Why not?

Because the AIDS and HIV scares didn’t happen until the 1980s!

So the senior population would not have learned about using protection against diseases. No matter the sexual orientation, a senior couple wouldn’t consider using a condom, because there wouldn’t be a chance of getting pregnant!

In conclusion, have a talk with your parents, and make sure they are aware of the consequences of not using a condom!


References

Why STI rates are steadily going up in Canada

Sexual Health Education in the Schools: A Brief History – Chapter 15 (PDF: 1MB)


If you’re enjoying the Blush blogs, consider learning more with Blush: The Card Game from Renaissance Press.