Some women become less interested in intercourse with age. However, keeping sex on the schedule may be a form of menopause medicine. According to recent research published in Menopause, regular fornication may help to reduce a woman’s odds of developing vulvar pain, dryness, and irritation among women in their 40s and 70s.
For women, estrogen deficiency that occurs during and after menopause could reduce life expectancy as well as impair quality of life via genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM). GSM is a condition affecting postmenopausal women, characterized by a range of genital and urinary symptoms due to decreased estrogen levels.
What is GSM?
Previously known as vulvovaginal atrophy or atrophic vaginitis, GSM encompasses symptoms like vaginal dryness, itching, burning, painful intercourse, urinary urgency, and increased frequency of urination. GSM is diagnosed through a combination of medical history, physical examination, and potentially vaginal health assessments like the Vaginal Health Index (VHI) or Vaginal Maturation Index (VMI). Treatment options for GSM range from non-hormonal approaches like lubricants and moisturizers to hormonal therapies, including vaginal or systemic estrogen. Pelvic floor physical therapy and sex therapy may also be beneficial in some cases.
Investigating Sexual Activity and GSM
The cross sectional study investigating the association between sexual activity and sexual function and genitourinary syndrome of menopause-related symptoms revealed that among the 900 women between the ages of 40 to 79 years old, those who engaged in coitus in the last three months reported far less pain, irritation, and dryness, while their orgasm and overall satisfaction were not affected despite varying levels of desire and lubrication. These findings may hint that the act of intimacy itself may help to curb the genitourinary syndrome of menopause.
For this study, engaging in engaged in coitus in the past 3 months was defined as regular sexual activity; while engaging in the past year but not the past three months was considered to be lower activity. The analysis revealed that the proportion of women having regular coitus significantly decreased with age. This is in line with the Female Sexual Function Index Score (consisting of 19 questions on sexual function in 6 domains) for sexual desire, arousal, and lubrication also declining with age. However, the scores for orgasm and satisfaction did not change with age.
Conclusions
The researchers determined that while some sexual functions and symptoms change with age, they may be maintained by engaging in more regular sexual activity, based on these results, and the study also revealed that women with regular sexual activity show a low prevalence of GSM-related symptoms.
“The findings highlight the importance of diagnosing and treating GSM. Only 2.9% of the participants reported using hormone therapy. Local low-dose vaginal estrogen therapy is safe and highly effective at alleviating bothersome vulvovaginal symptoms contributing to pain and avoidance of intercourse. And although optimal sexual health is integral to overall well-being, it is also imperative to recognize the effect these symptoms can have on women who aren’t sexually active. Treatment should be offered to anyone with symptoms, whether engaging in sexual activity or not. Normalizing use of local low-dose estrogen therapy should be a thing,” says Dr. Monica Christmas, associate medical director for The Menopause Society.
This article was created at the WHN News Desk.
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