NEW YORK: When a woman enters menopause, her sex life and that of her partner may suffer, according to a survey in which more than half of the women reported a decrease in sex drive and in the amount of sex they were having since entering menopause.
Overall, 46% of menopausal women surveyed reported having sex less than once per month and most women felt that this was hurting their relationship. “Menopausal women are having less sex and it’s impacting our relationships,” Karen Giblin noted in a telephone interview. “Frankly, through the Red Hot Mamas menopause education programmes, I have heard that a lot of women would rather go shoe shopping than have sex, and that concerns me.”
The survey, including more than 1,000 women, 35 years or older, who were just beginning, just ending, or in the middle of menopause, was conducted between June 20 and July 2, 2007.
“We are the baby-boom generation who is now entering menopause; we are the women who lived through the sexual revolution in the 60s and now we are having our own sexual revolution, of a different kind,” said Giblin, the founder of the Red Hot Mamas organisation, which commissioned the Sex and Menopause Survey.
Four hundred sixty nine of these women — about 44% — reported suffering from vaginal symptoms such as vaginal atrophy (vaginal narrowing or shrinkage), which can cause vaginal dryness and painful sex. Eighty-eight per cent of women experiencing vaginal atrophy said it was causing them problems and 47% said that they have avoided, made an excuse, or stopped having sex altogether because of physical discomfort during intercourse.
Source: The Times Of India
