By Kevin Connor
Aging can affect the quality of life for older people in many ways.Now anosmia — losing the sense of smell, which is a symptom of COVID-19 — can put seniors off their sex life, a new study shows.
A group of researchers, along with an expert from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, came up with the findings after testing a sample of 2,084 seniors over the age of 65.
They found a sense of smell plays a pivotal role in sexual motivation, the U.K. Daily Mail reported.
Other research concluded smell disorder in older patients impairs their sexual life.
“Decreased olfactory function in older U.S. adults was associated with decreased sexual motivation and less emotional satisfaction with sex, but not decreased frequency of sexual activity or physical pleasure,” the researchers said in their paper published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
The group of researchers suggests a decrease in smell didn’t necessarily decrease the frequency of sexual activity in all.
“Our research shows a decline in olfactory function may affect sexual pleasure in older adults,” said study author Jesse K. Siegel at the University of Chicago.
“Therefore, treatable causes of sensory loss should be addressed by clinicians to improve sexual health.”
Researchers say this is possibly because of ‘evolutionarily-conserved’ neurological links between olfaction and sexuality.
“Olfaction has a strong, evolutionary-conserved connection to the limbic system, which plays a critical role in processing emotions and sexual motivation,” Siegel and her team say in their paper.
“Neurons in the olfactory bulb also project directly to the hypothalamus, another key mediator of sexual motivation.”
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