Day #2 – Monday – July 8, 1974

Count Marco - July 8, 1974

Why Older Men Have Trouble in Bed

A recent TV documentary on the “male menopause” advises that impotence for middle-aged men is psychological, not physiological.

A great difficulty for the male over 40 is that he’s likely to be married to a middle-aged female. You may resent that remark all you want, but it’s true. Too true.

One of the truly great differences between males and females is that as he gets older he becomes more concerned with his ability as a sex partner. But a woman is more concerned about her family, her home and outside social activities.

To be aroused sexually, he has to be encouraged. But from what he sees sprawled on the other side of his bed, the only thing aroused in him is the DDTs: Disgust, Despair and Termination.

It’s true that you can barely flip a page of a magazine or newspaper today without noting ads for male improvement aids, such as hairpieces, face-lifts, creams, stomach cinches. He’s supposed to buy these to help him hold his job. That’s a lot of nonsense: When he looks in the mirror and notices age leaping out at him the first anxiety is about his sexual ability, not his job.

If he looks younger, he feels younger and is thus able to convince himself he can still perform at the drop of a hint.

For how many years now have I warned you women that celebrating your 25th wedding anniversary is not the time to sit back and relax? The dangerous years are not behind you, they’re ahead of you.

If you’re not getting any sex from him, it’s not because he’s too old or too tired, but because you’ve lost your touch – you’ve lost your sex appeal.

It’s up to you to rekindle his sexual interest in you. If you don’t some other woman will.


This post is part of a series, Ten Days of Count Marco, which examines the ten Count Marco columns leading up to the July 8, 1974 Count Marco letter.