Abstract

GATTI, Maria Carolina  and  PINTO, Maria Jaqueline Coelho. Active old age: the affective-sexual experience of the elderly. Vínculo [online]. 2019, vol.16, n.2, pp. 133-159. ISSN 1806-2490.  http://dx.doi.org/10.32467/issn.19982-1492v16n2p133-159.

Nowadays, the elderly have lived a more active life when rediscovering their own sexuality. Ten interviews were carried out with elders from Open University to the Third Age of the State University of São Paulo (UNATI/UNESP), being five men and five women aiming to understand their aging process and the meaning they attribute to their sexual-affection experience. This qualitative research was made up by the statements recorded from interviews in which the interviewee had been previously oriented to answer the following proposed question: “tell me about your sexual-affection experience throughout your life and your elderly years”. To analyze the corpus a phenomenological method was used. It consisted in reading and rereading, differing standpoints, elaborating categories, and making a distinction between convergence and divergence of speeches. In a unique way, from the elderly speeches, five categories came out: active elderly years, sexual-affection experience, sexually transmitted infections reality (ISTs), the marriage horizon and the aging transfigurations. These reflections allowed us to realize the existing need to deconstruct ideas and prejudice which obstruct a wide comprehension of the aging process and its singularities.

Keywords : aging; elderly; sexuality; sexual-affection experience.

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