THE NATION - Older but wiser? Safe sex after 50 - Experts and an aging population battle a risky HIV generation gap.

She doesn't mean grandmothers and grandfathers explaining the facts of life. She wants kids to explain safe sex to their elders.

It's part of a broader message the 72-year-old has advocated for more than a decade. Ever since she contracted HIV when she was in her 50s, Fowler has made it her mission to help aging baby boomers and members of her generation avoid her mistakes.

"Once people get past their own embarrassment and understand grandparents today are still sexually active, they realize I'm right," said Fowler, who is scheduled to speak at a safe-sex event on the Kansas State University campus today. "Their grandparents face the same risks of sexually transmitted diseases as they do."

The over-50 crowd is a relatively small segment of the nation's at-risk group for sexually transmitted diseases. Approximately four times as many HIV diagnoses occurred in people ages 25 to 44 as in those 50 and older, according to a 2005 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Still, medical experts agree that older Americans often are among the most overlooked -- and therefore one of the more vulnerable -- populations.

They point out that the majority of funding for preventive education over the last two decades has been aimed at the traditional high-risk populations such as teens, gays and urban residents. (Others, however, note that many baby boomers were young enough when the public first became aware of the AIDS crisis that they should have gotten plenty of exposure to safe-sex campaigns.)

In addition, many older patients feel uneasy discussing sexual behaviors with their physicians, according to AARP research. Doctors too can be uncomfortable talking about STD risks with people old enough to be their parents or grandparents, according to a recent study backed by the National Institutes of Health.

Considering that people now are living longer than previous generations have, and enjoying extended sex lives because of hormone therapy and erectile dysfunction drugs, there's a growing concern that the baby boom generation -- and their elders -- don't understand that getting older doesn't make one immune.

That concern is fueling a national push among public health officials and educators for more prevention efforts aimed at aging baby boomers and those who are firmly in their golden years.