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6 tips for an active, healthy, and happy sex life

These are things you can do on your own for an active sexual life.

• Make your partner a high priority
• Take time to enjoy each other and to understand the changes you both are facing
• Try different positions and new times, like having sex in the morning when you both may be well-rested
• Don’t hurry—you or your partner may need to spend more time touching to become fully aroused
• Masturbation is a sexual activity that many older people, with and without a partner, find satisfying
• Don’t be afraid to talk with your doctor if you have a problem that affects your sex life. He or she may be able to suggest a treatment. For example, the most common sexual difficulty of older women is painful intercourse caused by vaginal dryness. Your doctor or a pharmacist can suggest over-the-counter vaginal lubricants or moisturizers to use. Water-based lubricants are helpful when needed to make sex more comfortable. Moisturizers are used on a regular basis, every 2 or 3 days. Or, your doctor might suggest a form of vaginal estrogen
• If ED is the problem, it can often be managed and perhaps even reversed. There are pills that can help. They should not be used by men taking medicines containing nitrates, such as nitroglycerin. The pills do have possible side effects. Other available treatments include vacuum devices, self-injection of a drug, or penile implants

  Physical problems can change your sex life as you get older. But, you and your partner may discover you have a new closeness. Talk to your partner about your needs.