SUMMARY. This article provides a brief background for the study of sex and older persons. It examines the prevailing attitudes among older persons and society in general. A number of critical issues regarding sexuality in the latter years of life is addressed. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <[email protected]> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com>; © 2003 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]

KEYWORDS. Sex differences, laughing matter, sexuality, congregations, disparity, gender, heterosexual, marriage, divorce, church/synagogue, lifestyle, co-habitation, homosexuality, affairs, widowed

When Abraham, a man of 100 years, and Sarah, a woman of 90 years, were told they would have a son, they both laughed-not because of Abraham’s age, but because of Sarah’s age.1 In the Old Testament, it is not considered unusual for a man to father a child after he is 100 years of age. It was the limits of the child bearing age for the female that made the possibility of mothering a child at the age of 90 a laughing matter.2 Perhaps this ancient biblical account is the first recorded incidence of sex differences in aging and the sexual activity of older persons being viewed as a laughing matter.