Do OlderWomen Have A Right To Have Sex?
By: Last Love Standing
Tags: Vagina, Sex, Health, Women, Aging

At the age of 50, Ms. Carvalho Pinto de Sousa was diagnosed with bartholinitis, a gynecological disease. She had to go through surgery after which she began to experience intense pain and a loss of sensation in the vagina. Later on, she was informed that the disability was caused due to a medical error during the operation.

She sued the hospital and was rewarded a settlement.

The Court found that the surgeon had acted recklessly and as a result caused Ms. Carvalho Pinto de Sousa the pain and loss of sensation in the vagina and urinary incontinence.

This decision was appealed and as a result, the Supreme Court decided to reduce the damages awarded to Ms. Carvalho Pinto de Sousa because:

“It should not be forgotten that at the time of the operation the plaintiff was already 50 years old and had two children, that is, an age when sex is not as important as in younger years, its significance diminishing with age.“

Quote from Court Docket

As I write I remember a friend of mine who had to undergo a hysterectomy. She noticed soon after the surgery that she had no vagina anymore. When she asked the doctor why he answered “you don’t need it anymore!”. She was just 60 years old at that time and got very depressed afterward, feeling mutilated for no other reason than her age.

Society would prefer to pretend that older women don’t have sex, don’t want sex, and don’t even think about sex. But, for those of us who are older, we know that’s not the truth. We think about sex, want sex, need sex.

Published in the journal Menopause, researchers looked at information collected on 27,357 women who were followed for about five to seven years.

A large new study shows many women continue to be sexually active after menopause and most say they are satisfied with their sex lives, particularly if they are married or have a regular partner.

As we get older, the reality is that our body is changing in lots of different ways. But change isn’t always a bad thing. Sex can continue to be enthralling, awe-inspiring, and gratifying. And if it hasn’t been up to this point, there’s no time to start like the present.

There are many reasons why sex may slow down for women when they get older, not least of which is menopause. When the ovaries stop making estrogen, the vaginal lining becomes thinner, there’s less vaginal elasticity, muscle tone, and lubrication, and arousal takes longer. As a result, women may experience

decreased libido (a lack of interest in sex)

difficulty with lubrication

pain with penetration

difficulty or inability to climax.

Some women may have sexual dysfunction that’s related to social or psychological issues, such as stress, anxiety, body image problems, relationship problems, or the lack of a partner.

So what’s a woman to do? Seek treatment. That may not be as complicated as you think. Many sexual problems can be reversed with appropriate therapy.

Dr. Jan Leslie Shifren, associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School, and co-author of the Harvard special report Sexuality in Midlife and Beyond, says, “Some therapies are simple, such as using a lubricant or low-dose vaginal estrogen for dryness and pain, or swapping one medication with negative side effects for another. Sometimes the treatment may be more involved, such as hormone therapy for decreased libido or sex therapy for inability to climax.”

Who should get the Mona Lisa Procedure?

If you find yourself suffering from painful intercourse, sexual dysfunction, vaginal dryness, burning, or urinary incontinence, the Mona Lisa Touch procedure could be for you. These are not symptoms that you should have to live with and you are not alone. There are options to help you. The MonaLisa Touch® is a treatment option that could improve your symptoms and provide long-lasting relief.

But clinical therapy is just part of the prescription. These lifestyle changes can also make a difference:

Exercise — it can improve your sexual function by improving blood flow and strengthening your heart.

Quit smoking — it will improve blood flow to the sexual organs and may also stave off menopause for a few years.

Drink alcohol in moderation, since large amounts of alcohol can dampen sexual reflexes, trigger hot flashes, and disrupt sleep.

Control your weight to give you the body image you want.

Eat a healthy diet, which helps prevent heart disease and diabetes, and helps you maintain a healthy weight.

Why bother with all this? Sex is important to women’s health. It revs up metabolism and may boost the immune system. Frequent sexual intercourse is associated with reduced heart attack risk. It can help the vagina stay, tight, lubricated, elastic, and healthy. And it’s fun.

If it’s important to you, you should be able to enjoy sex well into your older years. If you don’t use it you will lose it. And that’s something worth talking about.

https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1988&context=jil