Gerontophilia is classified as an erotic age orientation where a person is sexually attracted to elderly people. While it's common for people to romantically gravitate towards people who are older than them—for example, a twenty-something woman might be attracted to a man in his late forties—this is not gerontophilia because older does not always equal "elderly." Gerontophiles are attracted to people aged 65 years and older, while not being part of or close to that age group. Gerontophilia doesn't accurately describe all extreme age-gap relationships—with some people choosing elderly partners for other reasons besides sexual arousal—because it involves a genuine physical attraction to features that are considered elderly, such as sagging skin, wrinkles, gray or white hair, or age spots. While there isn't much research into gerontophilia, the kink is suggested to arise when a person has their first or formative sexual experience with an elderly person.
