By Dr Dorree Lynn
From Grownups.co.nz

I’m so happy to be a part of Grownups.co.nz in New Zealand! I fell in love with New Zealand when I was there a number of years ago and your country holds a special place in my heart. I had planned to visit New Zealand for three weeks, but was lured to stay six on both the North and South Islands. From Auckland, to the Milford Trail, Christchurch, Whitianga, to beaches and gliders, NZ has the freshest bass and best cream in the world (it is one of the few countries where I’ve ever gained weight).

Judging by the emails and web hits, New Zealanders seem to be pretty hip to healthy sexual relationships. Together with the team of experts at GrownUps, we’ve put together a sexy survey to learn all about your pleasures, preferences, kinks and curiosities. Once we receive enough input, we will tally the answers and publish it on the site, revealing your collective sexual proclivities anonymously for the world to see and possibly learn from.

Start the Survey here*

I can’t wait to hear from you and share your responses, and I wish that each and every one of you have the most fabulous Valentine’s Day you could ever hope for!

With love and respect,
-Dr. Dorree Lynn

*Please note that the Sex Survey contains personal and explicit questions regarding sexual activity. You may skip questions in the survey that you do not feel comfortable answering. All individual answers and personal details will be kept confidential, only general statistics based on all participant’s responses will be published.
Published 10th Feb 2012

Link: http://www.grownups.co.nz/read/health/sexual_health/edi-dr-dorree-sex-survey

By Dr. Dorree Lynn
From The Georgetowner 01.11.12

Link: http://issuu.com/gmginc/docs/gt_2_08_12/24

By Dr. Dorree Lynn
From The Georgetowner 01.11.12

Link: http://issuu.com/gmginc/docs/1_11_12/24

By Dr. Dorree Lynn
From Grand Magazine 01/02 2012

Click for a screen shot of Dr. Dorree’s article in Grand Magazine

Ask any twenty-something about sex for seniors and they will probably look a bit grossed out.  Ask a sixty-something about sex for seniors and they will likely give you a secret smile.  That is because we seniors know the real truth that sex only gets better with age.  Furthermore, sex for those over 50 helps keep us healthy in several ways.

Naturally, the sex you have early in life is not the same sex you have later in life, but the benefits are just as powerful. Your brain is your largest sexual organ, so you have to start with how you define sex. Sex is more than penetration.  It is about an intimate connection, and it can easily begin in the morning with “I love you.” Intercourse is merely an element of sex, supplemented with passionate kissing and intimate touch.

Why bother?

Sex is our birthright, and, believe it or not, sexual desire is one of the last capacities we lose when we age.  Sex for the ageless allows us an opportunity to connect with our partners.  The physical requirements of sex, presumably lower impact at a higher age, helps us burn fat and exercise our bodies, causing the brain to release endorphins that help alleviate anxieties. Studies have shown that frequent sex at older ages can help increase our lifespan and strengthen relationships.

How does it work at our age?

The positions and antics you used to do in your twenties and thirties will not serve you well in your fifties and sixties. Say goodbye to headstands and swinging from the chandelier, at our age we should focus more on the intimate connection of sex.  Start by openly communicating with your partner, using humor to lighten the mood if necessary. Discuss new ideas and talk about what both of you are capable of and willing to try.

Make it last by starting with a romantic dinner or a movie. Enjoy a walk while holding hands in the park.  Create a moment where you focus on being together and celebrating yourselves as a partnership.  There is no reason to be shy, so open up and talk about what you want to do later.  And when the time comes, relax.  Maybe you will start by soaking side by side in a relaxing bath or by giving each other a massage.  The goal here is to enjoy an intimate moment together.

Hang-ups are for telemarketers!

Do not let emotional obstacles ruin your good time.  We all experience anxiety, depression, stress and lack of libido from time to time.  This is normal.  Relax and work through it.  It is okay if your body sags in few places; presumably your partner’s body has changed over time as well.  Don’t panic over performance issues, you are certainly not being judged by the Olympic Committee.  This is your partner, your life, and your health and happiness on the line, so put you first and make it a great time!

Link: http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20120102_v3/#/36

By Barbara Salter
From Forever Young Magazine 01.01.12

Link: http://issuu.com/hometownnews/docs/volusia-fy-jan2012/1

Answer: How fortunate that you continue to have an enjoyable sex life. If you’re unable to reach climax even through masturbation, then your guess is the same as mine, medication. Ask your health care professional if there is any other medication you can use instead of the one you are taking. Also, ask if Testosterone supplements in some form might be helpful.

By Dr. Dorree Lynn
From The Georgetowner 12.07.11

Link: http://issuu.com/gmginc/docs/120711/24

By ABC News Oline

Judy Lewis didn’t find out she was the secret daughter of two Hollywood stars until she was 31 years old.

Lewis only learned the truth when she had an identity crisis just before marriage and her fiancé blurted out, “It’s common knowledge, Judy,” he said. “Your father is Clark Gable.”

Lewis, a former soap opera star, died Nov. 25 at the age of 76 in Pennsylvania, leaving behind a sordid tale of family deception – one that is all too common in Hollywood.

Her mother was Loretta Young, a budding actress, who told Lewis she was adopted after getting pregnant in a short-lived affair with Gable, the rogue romantic lead with the trademark big ears in “Gone With the Wind.”

For years, her mother reportedly hid Lewis’ Gable-like ears under a hat and had them surgically clipped at the age of 7 to quell rumors about her parentage.

According to her obituary today in The New York Times, Lewis spent the first 19 months of her life being hidden away in orphanages so her mother could protect her career from the shame of pregnancy.

Though Lewis was a child of the 1930s and 1940s, when extramarital affairs and out-of-wedlock pregnancies were scandalous, her life story echoes those of other Hollywood celebrities who were or had secret babies.

Actor Jack Nicholson learned late in life that he had been raised by his grandmother – told that she was his mother and that the woman he believed was his sister, was actually his biological mother.

The “As Good as It Gets” star said he never learned of his parentage until he became famous and both his grandmother and mother were dead. An expose in Time magazine revealed his past.

The awakening for Lewis was in 1958, when she was engaged to Joe Tinney, whom she later married and divorced. According to her book, she told him, “I can’t marry you. I don’t know anything about myself.”

Even in modern times, Hollywood has had its baby daddy scandals.

Just this year, Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed that he had fathered a love child with his Guatemalan housekeeper and that he had supported the boy for 10 years. His 25-year marriage to Maria Shriver dissolved over the revelation.

Others, like revered comedian Bill Cosby – and even Apple founder Steve Jobs – finally fessed up to indiscretions that led to hushed-up pregnancies.

“It’s a fascinating story,” said Dorree Lynn, a clinical psychologist from Washington, D.C., who specializes in sex, intimacy and marriage and hosts “My Generation,” a relationship segment for AARP.

“In some ways, it’s no different than anyone finding out a devastating secret about their parents, except that it’s Hollywood and even more so,” she said. “If you were to suddenly find out your parents were not your parents, you would have an identity crisis. But in Hollywood, everything is played out on a grand scale.

“It’s all played out in the public eye,” she said.  “You have multiple layers of truth and multiple layers of exposure.”

Times have, indeed, changed. Premarital sex and even having a child before marriage is commonplace.

“We accept it, even from the Huxtables,” said Lynn. “Even in the case of Bill Cosby, the perfect father and role model. He comes out of the closet with an out-of- wedlock child.”

Just this week, Kourtney Kardashian announced her second pregnancy with boyfriend Scott Disick. Angelina Jolie tromps around the world with three biological children with Brad Pitt. Neither couple is married.

“It’s a little different in the age of Twitter and Facebook for very much to remain secret,” said Lynn. “News and scandal has shifted the way Americans view life. But even the Arnold [Schwarzenegger] deal is a bit of a shock because it is so extreme. We don’t even really know if it was such a major secret.”

Today, some Hollywood women, like “Mad Men” actress January Jones, flagrantly have babies and refuse to identify their fathers.

In the case of Loretta Young, then 22, and Clark Gable, then 34, they had an affair in 1935, while in Washington state filming, “The Call of the Wild.” He was married to someone else at the time.

Young, a Roman Catholic, went to Europe to wait out her pregnancy, then returned to the United States and put Lewis in a San Francisco orphanage. She later married radio producer Tom Lewis and told her daughter she had been adopted, admitting no biological relation to her.

When confronted in 1966, Young told her daughter the truth. Lewis went public with her story in her 1994 memoir, “Uncommon Knowledge,” and after that her mother would not talk to her for three years.

Lewis said in an interview at the time: “It was very difficult for me as a little girl not to be accepted or acknowledged by my mother, who, to this day, will not publicly acknowledge that I am her biological child,” according to The New York Times.

In Young’s memoir, “Forever Young,” she eventually admitted Lewis was her daughter, but refused to allow the book to be published until after her death, which was in 2000.

Young explained that she and Gable would have lost their careers in Hollywood, if the scandal had ever become public. Other actors like Charlie Chaplin and Ingrid Bergman had been banned from acting in the United States when it was revealed they had extramarital affairs, though both ultimately salvaged their star status.

Gable and Young’s daughter Lewis worked as a soap actress for years before going back to school at age 40. She went on to become a child psychologist and to specialize in foster care and marriage therapy – a career choice that, “I have no question … was in some way consciously or unconsciously related to healing her own wounds,” said psychologist Lynn.

Link: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2011/12/secret-children-of-hollywood-clark-gables-daughter-dies/

By Kerry Hannon
From Forbes.com 11.23.11

I had the opportunity to attend  The Gerontological Society of America’s (GSA) 64th Annual Scientific Meeting in Boston last week, and, believe me, the four-day event was packed with smart academics, scientists, and experts in the field of aging from all over the world to the tune of more than 4,000 attendees. I will share lots of good material gleaned from that heady time once I process it all. I couldn’t resist, however, sharing  this titillating study right off the bat.

Sure jobs matter and finding work that is engaging and gives purpose in one’s post-retirement career is something I have spent hours interviewing people about over the last five years. I have reported and studied ways to make that transition a success, and passed along my advice. But perhaps I’ve been remiss, narrow-minded.

There’s more to happiness in our next act, than meaningful work and enough retirement savings. The more often older married individuals engage in sexual activity, the more likely they are to be happy with both their lives and marriages, according to new research presented in Boston at (GSA) meeting.

This finding is based on the 2004–2008 General Social Surveys, a public opinion poll conducted on a nationally representative sample of non-institutionalized English and Spanish-speaking person 18 years of age or older living in the U.S. The data analysis was conducted by Adrienne Jackson,PhD, an assistant professor at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.

What’s her mission? “This study will help open the lines of communication and spark interest in developing ‘outside the box’ approaches to dealing with resolvable issues that limit or prevent older adults from participating in sexual activity,” Jackson says. “Highlighting the relationship between sex and happiness will help us in developing and organizing specific sexual health interventions for this growing segment of our population.”

Nope. We’re not talking older worker job-training for new careers.

Based on the survey responses of 238 married individuals age 65 years or older, Jackson discovered that frequency of sexual activity was a significant predictor of both general and marital happiness. The association even remained after accounting for factors such as age, gender, health status, and satisfaction with financial situation.

Her findings:

• Whereas only 40 percent of individuals who reported no sexual activity in the last 12 months said they were very happy with life in general, almost 60 percent who engaged in sexual activity more than once a month said they were very happy.
• Similarly, while about 59 percent of individuals who reported no sexual activity in the last 12 months said they were very happy with their marriage, almost 80 percent who had sex more than once a month said they were very happy.

Since it pains me to write a column without some news you can use, take-away advice, I turned to sexpert Dr. Dr. Dorree Lynn, co-author of Sex for Grownups: Dr. Dorree Reveals the Truth, Lies and Must-Tries for Great Sex after 50 (2010) for some guidance. In an interview with me a few months ago, the 70-year-old revealed some insights into how sex can stay alive after 50 when worries of low bibido and performance anxiety can take a toll.

Here are some of Dr. Dorree’s tips.

• Think sexy and presto, you are. The brain is the biggest sex organ. Sex becomes, for most, less hormone-driven, more desire-driven as you age. Desire starts in the brain, and that’s physiological. Better thinking, better sex. Many people get stuck in their twentysomething image. You have to change your attitude.
• Go a ‘courtin. Dress up and go on date nights with your partner. Communicate–without that, relationships die. Talk about yourselves, each other, interesting issues — not kid problems or money worries.
• Use a condom. The sex secret of the century is that men and women over 50 have the fastest-growing rate of HIV and STDs in the country, she says citing a study published in the Journal of Sexually Transmitted Infections and AIDS infoNet.

Who knew? Potential stock tips: Reckitt Benckiser Group, household and healthcare products (Durex condoms) and  Johnson & Johnson (K-Y Jelly).

This article stems from research conducted as part of a MetLife Foundation Journalists in Aging Fellowship program created by New America Media and the Gerontological Society of America.

Click here for an Index of Articles by Kerry Hannon

Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryhannon/2011/11/23/happiness-is-more-than-finding-a-dream-job-for-65-try-sex-study-finds/