Older women go online to find sexual partners

Womenaged 40 and above are just as likely as younger women to meet new sexualpartners on the internet, according to a new Australian survey.
Nearly 45 per cent of the middle aged women agreed to snaringat least one new lover in a year.
According to study leader DeborahBateson, a senior medical coordinator at Family Planning NSW, the internet������seems to be a very useful place for them ...It���s great thatolder women are out there meeting new partners."
She conducted theresearch to see whether 40-pluses were able to negotiate safe sex as effectivelyas their younger counterparts.
������Three-quarters [ofsexually transmitted infections] are detected in people aged under 29, butthere���s also an increase in women aged 40 and above ... entering orre-entering the dating market, perhaps after the end of a long-termrelationship,������ the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Bateson assaying.
For the survey, an online dating site RSVP, owned by theHerald���s publisher, Fairfax Media, sent an email to female participants,directing them to Bateson���s survey site.
The findings revealed thatolder women were more forthright in insisting on knowing a new partner���ssexual history.
Nearly 59 per cent of the over-40s would ask aboutprevious partners, versus 43 per cent of the younger women, with a similardiscrepancy in willingness to ask about intravenous drug use.
������The older women seemed to benefit from the maturity ofyears and asked those potentially tricky questions,������ saidBateson.
However, 37 per cent of the older women were more likely toagree to sex without a condom, compared to 28 per cent of youngerwomen.
The findings were presented at 2009 Australasian Sexual HealthConference in Brisbane.