Gerontophilia is a more or less severe sexual deviance. Its treatment is psychotherapeutic and / or medicinal. 

Gerontophilia is a paraphilia (deviant aspect (para) of what attracts the subject (philia) such as pedophilia, bestiality, necrophilia… Gerontophilia is a sexual attraction for very old people.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) defines paraphilias “as sexual impulses, sexually arousing imaginative fantasies, and unusual repeated behaviors involving inanimate objects; suffering or humiliation of oneself or of the partner; children or other non-consenting persons, and which extend over a period of at least six months ”. This behavior is at the origin of suffering or an alteration in social functioning. Paraphilias have a greater or lesser impact on the ability of sufferers to engage in sexual activity based on affection and reciprocity. 

Paraphilias are more or less severe. The degree of severity depends on the act and its frequency. 

These are the disorders formerly called sexual perversions. 

As with other paraphilias, apart from masochism, gerontophilia rarely affects women. The sex ratio is in fact 20 men for 1 woman (1 gerontophile woman for 20 men). The diagnosis of gerontopophilia arises only when the gerontophile person takes action or is very disturbed by his impulses. Gerontophilia like other paraphilias can begin in adolescence or adulthood. Gerontophilic preferences can be permanent (imaginative fantasies or paraphilic stimuli are obligatory to trigger erotic arousal and are always part of the sexual act) or appear episodically, during a period of stress for example. 

Like other paraphilias, gerontophilia generally has a chronic course. It therefore requires support. 

There are many treatments for gerontophilia, like that of other paraphilias. 

The two main areas of care are psychotherapies (cognitive-behavioral therapy, sexological care, etc.) and drug management, i.e., drive control aid treatments (certain high-dose antidepressants and hormonal treatments antiandrogens, which can only be taken with the consent of the patient).

Psychotherapeutic management and pharmacological management can be combined. 

These treatments aim to control paraphilic fantasies and behaviors and to help paraphilic people including gerontophiles to think differently about their sexuality. 

When the gerontophiliac has sex with a consenting elderly person, it is a legal situation, while other paraphilias, such as pedophilia or voyeurism are illegal.