Understanding Sexuality in Older Adulthood

Sexuality in Older Adulthood
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Sexual dysfunction refers to a person’s failure to follow bodily desires by engaging in sexual intercourse. Studies revealed that forty-three percent of American women, ages eighteen to fifty-nine years old, suffer from this, while forty-two to eighty-eight percent experience it during their menstrual cycle (Rahmanian et al., 2019). Many patients are reluctant to reach out for help, particularly the women, due to their poor understanding of the condition or the fear of discrimination. Therefore, healthcare professionals must have the skill to properly take the history and examine the patients to prevent the disorder’s progression. This is a lesson that was emphasized in the video presentation by the North American Menopause Society.
Surprisingly, according to Dr. Marla Shapiro, a professor at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, many patients, despite claiming that sexual health is critical to their life, do not seek help from health providers because they do not know its real impact (Northern American Menopause Society, 2021). It is unanticipated because people with health problems frequently consult with an expert, especially if it causes significant disturbances with everyday life, particularly when the experiences become less, if not at all, pleasurable.
The interview also discussed genital urinary syndrome (GSM), a chronic condition involving the lower urinary tract and vulvovaginal areas, presenting as vaginal dryness, itching, burning, dyspareunia, and post-coital bleeding, and dysuria. This is common in fifty percent of postmenopausal women. It significantly affects their quality of life due to the hesitancy in engaging in sexual intercourse secondary to pain and possible vaginal bleeding or loss of libido (Angelou et al., 2020). It can be managed with vaginal lubricants and pelvic floor physical therapy. However, if these do not improve the symptoms, the physician can give low-dose vaginal estrogens (North American Menopause Society, 2021). Shen et al. (2016) found that this treatment balances the vaginal microbiota as manifested by the relative abundance of Lactobacillus species and decreased in Ga...