We Might Be Ignoring What Really Affects Women's Sex Lives In Middle Age

It might not be as simple as just “menopause and ageing”.

For years, I’d heard the same story: when women reach middle age, and perimenopause and menopause approach, our hormone shifts lead to physical changes, like increased vaginal dryness and less genital blood flow which can lower our sexual “function”.

These were why I believed sexual interest and activity tended to dip as women got older.

But there’s one problem – in study after study, middle-aged women seemed to suggest there was more to the picture.

Ageing and menopause, and related “sexual function”, aren’t always the biggest predictors of sexual activity

Firstly, 73% of women in one study were sexually active in midlife, even though 50% of this group “reported symptoms of sexual dysfunction”.

Another paper suggested that middle-aged women’s levels of age-related sexual “dysfunction” didn’t seem to affect their likelihood of staying sexually active: instead, what mattered most was how........

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