According to the metaphor that compares a woman’s life cycle to the seasonal one, the menopause is usually associated with the season ofWinter. It is attributed with anguishing and worrying connotations, because it is understood as a passage to a period of life where each woman will inevitably lose something: beauty, youth and the ability to conceive. It is therefore easy to think that, with her arrival, the woman is automatically disinterested in everything related to the sexual sphere.
This concept is supported by the fact that female sexual dysfunctions, including changes in the sexual desirethe level of arousal e lubrication, experience of pain, increase during menopause. However, sex is regarded by adult women as a moderately to extremely important activity and several recent researches have shown that menopause does not necessarily bring about a major change in a woman’s life; although the physiological and pathological changes typical of this period are responsible for various problems, it is the attitude of women towards menopause that plays a key role in creating or overcoming such difficulties.
While it is true that during menopause it is possible to go through a period of decrease in self-esteem and increase in frustration towards the narcissistic component with consequent crises of the previous defenses, assuming a positive attitude can instead help to project oneself into a new dimension, where this passage can almost constitute a rebirth: the restructuring of a new identity it can stimulate the search for new interests and above all it produces greater attention for oneself and a deepening of one’s individuality.
For example, some women may see menopause as the start of a new period of freedom, as they can free themselves from the worry of running into some unwanted pregnancyallowing them to feel more self-confident and be more sexually active than before.
To acquire and bring this security into play, it is important that the woman remains in contact with herself and with the process of self-change: the relationship with sexuality depends very much on the way in which the woman confronts herself with the image of his body in evolution and how it will be able to adapt to these and other changes, such as those concerning the couple which transforms from parental (able to have children) to conjugal.
Other signs of change, as already mentioned, concern the sexual problems related to menopause, which they can represent an objective obstacle to sexual exploration. These, if taken into consideration, can instead be a starting point for rediscovering one’s sexual functioning. However, very few women turn to doctors, sexologists or other professionals; the lack of information sources often leads to misperceptions about sex and sexuality, such as the belief that pain or lack of interest in sexual activity is an inevitable point and not modifiable in the life of a woman, especially if advanced in age, an idea that can lead the person not to seek the care he needs.
Even if today the right to non-reproductive sexuality seems to be culturally accepted, it is common for a woman in menopause to perceive embarrassment e unease in expressing their sexual needs and this seems to be due to the stereotypical image of the aging woman that recalls asexuality, parallel to the stereotype of the elderly and children.
Such stereotypical images do not correspond to reality, as menopause indicates the interruption of menstrual cycles, and therefore the inevitable infertility, but not asexuality; moreover, since sexual health is a fundamental human right and represents an essential aspect of the quality of life of every woman and menopause is not just a set of symptoms, but represents on average one third of each person’s life, it is necessary that every woman and society in general recognize and preserve this right.
I thank Dr. Giulia Limongelli for her collaboration