A new study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine has found that although the physical mechanics of sex may become a bit more difficult after menopause, most women will continue to be sexually active as long as they feel sex is important.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) considers all premenstrual and perimenopausal symptoms to be signs of ill-health, and generally suggests treatment with acupuncture and herbs.
Conventional wisdom has suggested that in the years around menopause some women enjoy sex more once they no longer have to worry about accidental pregnancy, while other women think about sex less often or don’t enjoy it as much, with changes in sexuality at this time linked to such physiological conditions as:
– decreased hormones that can make vaginal tissues drier and thinner, thereby making sex uncomfortable;
– decreased hormones that can reduce sex drive.
– night sweats that can disturb a woman’s sleep and make her too tired for sex; and
– emotional changes that can make a woman feel too stressed for sex.
The JAMA study included 354 women ranging in age from their 40s to mid-60s, and found that those women who felt that sex was highly important were about three times as likely to continue having sex as women who thought it was a little or not important, leading to the conclusion that if a woman enters midlife still sexually active, she will likely continue to be sexually active post-menopause.
What did surprise researchers was that most of the women reported significant physical difficulties with sex, however this could have resulted from poor test calibration given that the test was designed for pre-menopausal women and therefore did not accurately reflect sexual intimacy at midlife). The disparity could also mean that women are using sexual aids, like lubricants, to overcome some of the difficulties.
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