Suzanne Somers, 73, reveals she has sex twice daily with 83-year-old husband

Believe it or not people don’t stop having sex at when they hit 60 (or even 70!). Just ask Suzanne Somers.

The 73-year-old actress opened up about her personal life revealing that she and husband Alan Hamel, 83, still have sex twice a day with a little help from weekly shots of PT-141, a melanocortin-based peptide that boosts sexual arousal.

“I’m kind of in that groove, like when you were younger and you're in the mood all the time, and so is he because he's on hormone replacements,” she told Daily Mail.

Somers said that she and Hamel, who she married in 1977, have enjoyed taking shots of PT-141 on a weekly basis.

“I thought, ‘Wow, what a great thing.’ Because men have had Viagra, but this [is] actually a shot for both men and women that’s not a drug,” she explains.

“It just stimulates that part of your brain that says, ‘Hey, I’m kind of in the mood.’ And so, isn’t that a wonderful thing? And it’s not a drug, so I love it.”

Despite the couple typically having sex twice a day, Somers admitted that she struggles to stay awake for both sessions.

“I usually say I sleep through one of them,” the star jokes of their romps. “That's usually that one at 4 o'clock in the morning. But, you know, then again around 8 o'clock in the morning, I'm in the mood.”

And it seems the duo have always enjoyed a healthy sex life.

“Oh, he's just so beautiful,” she told the Daily Mail. “I had sex with him on our very first date just in case there wasn't a second one. I just wanted to be with him that first time.”

Somers isn’t the only one who wants the world to know that your sex life doesn’t stop as you hit your seventh, eighth or even ninth decade.

Dame Judi Dench, 84, also previously opened up about her own personal life, revealing that the older generation can still enjoy a healthy sex life and encouraging her fellow 80 plus-ers to embrace their desires.

“Well, of course, you still feel desire,” she told Radio Times. “Does that ever go? To the older reader, I would say: ‘Don’t give up’.”

Jane Fonda has also revealed that love and sex at over 80 is better than ever. “First of all, we’re braver. What do you have to lose? So my skin sags…so does his,” the 81-year-old told The Hollywood Reporter.

“You know your body better, so you’re not afraid to ask for what you need. I think on a love-and-sex level, it just gets better.”

READ MORE: 95-year-old identical twins claim no sex and 'plenty of Guinness' are key to a long life

Health benefits of senior sex

Need further proof that your grandma and grandpa are probably having more sex than you? Just look to science.

A recent survey found that 85% of men aged 60-69 report being sexually active, as do 60% of those aged 70-79 and 32% of those aged 80 and over.

A further study, for the National Social Life, Health and Ageing Project (NSHAP), conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Chicago, found that almost three quarters (74%) of women aged 75 to 85 believed satisfactory sex was essential to maintaining a relationship, while 72% of men felt the same.

The same research found that over a third of men (38%) and almost a fifth (17%) of women within this age bracket were sexually active. And why the heck not?

Turns out getting in on has multiple health benefits for the older generation too.

A recent study published in the journal Sexual Medicine indicates that sexual activity is associated with improved wellbeing amongst older adults.

Led by Dr Sarah Jackson (UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care) and Dr Lee Smith from ARU, the study involved analysing survey data from 6,879 older adults, with an average age of 65.

It found that older men and women who reported any type of sexual activity in the previous 12 months had a higher life enjoyment score than those who were not sexually active.

READ MORE: Salma Hayek celebrates 53rd birthday with bikini selfie: 'You don't look a day over 35'

Getting jiggy can also help boost senior brains.

Researchers from Coventry and Oxford University in the UK have found a link between frequent sexual activity and improved brain function in older adults.

The study, published in in The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological and Social Sciences, involved quizzing 73 people aged 50-83 on how often, on average, they’d had sex over the past 12 months. Participants also answered questions about their general health and lifestyle.

The 28 men and 45 women also took part in a standardised test, which is typically used to measure different patterns of brain function in older adults, focussing on attention, memory, fluency, language and visuospatial ability.

Scientists found that people who had sex at least weekly scored higher on tests of cognitive function – and, more specifically, on tests that measured verbal fluency and visuospatial ability – than those who had sex less frequently.

And the ‘feel good’ benefits of sex don’t reduce as the birthday candle number rises.

The older generation will still reap the benefits of the release of endorphins during sex, which generate a happy or elated feeling.

Not only does this help improve mental health, higher endorphin levels are also associated with greater activation of the immune system.

Finally, seniors should remember that sex is a form of physical activity and as such comes with the associated health benefits of upping your exercise.

READ MORE: Women over 50 reveal the list of things you should do before hitting the milestone birthday

Risks?

Despite a wealth of benefits age does not protect you from sexually transmitted infections, which means older people who are sexually active may be at risk for diseases such as syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, genital herpes and other STIs.

In fact, according to the NHS rates of some sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among older people are on the rise.

And in a further cloud to the sex silver lining researchers in the US have shown that older men who enjoy frequent sex could see their chances of developing heart problems increased.

The same was not seen for older women, who appeared to suffer no ill-effects heart-wise from enjoying a robust sex life.

Hui Liu, a sociologist who led the study, said that older men may come off worse because they exhaust themselves more than younger men in an effort to reach an orgasm.

She said that would “create more stress on their cardiovascular system in order to achieve climax”.