There are always a number of concerns when Grandma goes off to the retirement community. Is she lonesome? Is she getting the right care? Meanwhile, at the Villages retirement community near Orlando, Florida, residents are pondering concerns of their own. Namely, “What’s that itch?’

Promising “old-fashioned fun” on their Web site, the Villages has become a hotbed of lovin’ for the sag set, and that has led to what’s being called an epidemic of STDs. A Villages gynecologist claims to have seen more herpes and HPV there than while working in Miami.

Though Viagra is taking some of the heat, the brunt of the problem falls back on a general ignorance of the ins and outs of STD transmission. Add no risk of pregnancy to the mix, and it’s a condom-free artificial hip grind. One Villages resident says he’s had “a better dating life” within the community than he’d ever had before.

Hoping to stem the tide of disease, a nearby medical centre is introducing seniors-only sex-ed classes.

» Scott Saxon