Menopause and how to manage lack of sexual desire

Women approaching 50 often face a decrease in sexual desire, a common issue accompanying menopause. Beyond managing hot flashes, sleep disturbances, and mood swings, addressing sexual health becomes crucial.

Sophisticated treatments are now available for frequent menopausal sexual problems, such as diminished or absent desire and arousal disorder. During this climacteric phase, women experience hormonal shifts similar to adolescence. Estrogen production gradually declines, leading to thinner vaginal walls, reduced lubrication, and potential pain during intercourse, all of which can severely impact sexual desire.

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It's my case. I invest a lot of money in eggs, creams, and treatments so that my body can continue to function as before, and even so, I find it hard to connect with desire. Sometimes, when night comes, I go to the living room to watch a movie and avoid the bed. A couple of weeks pass without sex, and an alarm goes off. I feel disconnected from my husband, and the ghosts come; I think he's going to be unfaithful at any moment.

Concurrently, testosterone levels, responsible for awakening desire, decrease with age. This hormonal combination results in a significant drop in both desire and sufficient arousal. In contrast, men's testosterone levels decline more gradually, remaining relatively stable into their 70s.

Medical experts acknowledge the challenges of maintaining good sexual health in midlife but stress that solutions exist. They emphasize that sexual interest after 50 requires conscious effort, time, and energy, unlike the automaticity experienced in younger years. One woman shared her experience of investing in treatments and still finding it difficult to connect with desire, sometimes avoiding intimacy altogether.

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There is still the belief that, as women age, sex no longer interests them as before. And that's not true. I hear many who are unsatisfied because they want to modify conduct.