THE SEXUAL QUESTION – What is the impact of menopause on a couple’s sex life?

Hot flashes, insomnia, weight gain or joint pain: the potential manifestations of menopause are well known and can affect all women, in which it usually occurs between 48 and 52 years. In some, this natural physiological phenomenon will also lead to a drop in libido. Monday inWithout appointment, sex therapist Catherine Blanc has returned to this latter aspect, which will naturally affect the couple’s sex life and which can take time to overcome.

The question

What is the impact of menopause and the potential drop in libido on the couple’s sex life?

Catherine Blanc’s response

Menopause is a new episode for women, which obviously requires the acceptance of this new phase, without experiencing it as a failure but as a new possibility. It is a time that some will live happily because they no longer have their period. But for most of the others, it is rather mourning that makes for a fertility and also a new contact with one’s body. All this is enough to destabilize that communication with the partner is sometimes not that simple.

How to explain the drop in libido?

In addition to the small unpleasant symptoms, there is a thinning vaginal wall, much more difficult lubrication. So for some, the fact that it’s a little less comfortable makes it difficult to get close to sexuality easily, as it can be uncomfortable, even painful.

For some women, the apprehension of moving towards sexuality will be caused by the fact that lubrication is less easy. Others, before they feel that the lubrication is less, will feel like a stop, like a silence in their body, in their sex. There is no more momentum and the body does not seem to react to male stimuli.

Also, menopause can be a painful encounter with your body. However, to make love, it is not enough to have the loving gaze of the other, you must also love yourself.

Can we fix it?

There are so many possibilities. First of all, take care of yourself. There is also what hormone replacement treatments offer which restore libido and greatly improve lubrication. There are also laser treatments, to plump the genital wall that allows this lubrication.

But let’s not reduce female desire to lubrication. We can have the lubrication repaired medically, without desire finding its way.