WASHINGTON — The generation that promoted free love has grown old and cranky about sex.
Faced with performance problems, menopause blues and an increased mismatch of expectations between the sexes, baby boomers are the unhappiest Americans of all when it comes to making love, a new Associated poll shows.
Only 7 percent of people between 45 and 65 describe themselves as extremely satisfied with their sex lives. And nearly a quarter of the boomers say they are dissatisfied. Even among seniors, fewer are dissatisfied.
“Older people can learn new tricks,” said Ruth West heimer, the sex therapist better known as Dr. Ruth. Aging men and women need to work on being “sexually literate — to really know what they need, what their partner needs,” she said in an Associated Press interview.
The findings represent a stark turnaround for the group of Americans who spearheaded the sexual revolution, coming of age as birth control became readily available, premarital sex gained wider acceptance and abortion was legalized. The boomers also were many of the first victims of the AIDS epidemic.
Younger and older people report better feelings about their sex lives. About 24 percent of boomers say they are dissatisfied, compared with 12 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds, 20 percent of those 30-44 and 17 percent of those over 65.
A surprising number of baby boomers feel they have learned just about all there is to know about sex — nearly three in five women and half of men.
The poll was conducted Oct. 1-10. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for all adults and 3.9 percentage points for adults 45 to 65.
