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Advice for Single Retirees: Buy Condoms

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

Seniors looking for love need to remember they aren’t immune from sexually transmitted disease, Palm Beach Post columnist Steve Dorfman writes.

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Between 2007 and 2011, incidence of syphilis increased 52 percent and chlamydia 31 percent among Americans 65 and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those numbers mean that seniors are currently the age group at greatest risk of contracting STDs, CDC says.

Reasons for the boomers' boom in STDs include late-life divorce rates, availability of erectile-dysfunction medications, and improved fitness, CDC says. And in that age group, Dorfman writes, people don’t think condoms are of any use after the reproductive years.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.