Most medical practitioners still consider sexual activity to be the domain of the young, with elderly women rarely considered as having sexual needs or being sexually active. A recent publication of Trompeter and others [1] is an important addition to the small body of literature about the sexuality of older women. In all, 806 women with a mean age of 67 years responded to a questionnaire-based study of sexual activity, sexual satisfaction, and domains of the Female Sexual Function Index; 50% of the women reported sexual activity in the preceding 4 weeks. Although the likelihood of being sexually active declined with age, 40% of women aged 68–79 years and 13% of the women more than 79 years of age reported being sexually active within the last month. Furthermore, 23% of the women aged over 79 years reported arousal, with almost always a similar pattern of satisfaction to that of younger women. Not surprisingly, being sexually active was associated with younger age, living with a spouse or partner, current use of hormone replacement therapy and reporting better physical health.
Author(s)
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Susan Davis
Director, the Womens Health Research Program, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Citations
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Trompeter SE, Bettencourt R, Barrett-Connor E. Sexual activity and satisfaction in healthy community-dwelling older women. Am J Med 2012;125:37-43.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22195529 -
Beckman N, Waern M, Gustafson D, Skoog I. Secular trends in self reported sexual activity and satisfaction in Swedish 70 year olds: cross sectional survey of four populations, 1971-2001. BMJ 2008;337:151-4.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18614505 -
Hayes RD, Dennerstein L, Bennett CM, et al. Risk factors for female sexual dysfunction in the general population: exploring factors associated with low sexual function and sexual distress. J Sex Med 2008;5:1681-93.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18410300
