Female biology can be cruel when it comes to sexual health — treating it primarily as a means for reproduction and not sexual enjoyment. And millions of postmenopausal women can attest to this.
Each year in the United States, about two million women enter menopause, which kicks off a wide range of symptoms — from hot flashes to sexual health issues, including vaginal dryness and loss of libido.
To help you reclaim your sexual health during and after menopause, menopause experts Dr. Chetanna Okasi and the team at Women’s Wellness MD outline a few great best practices below.
Once you transition out of your reproductive phase and your ovaries shut down, your estrogen levels plummet. Among their many jobs, these hormones ensure that your vaginal tissues are healthy, strong, and well lubricated to encourage sexual intercourse and to ease childbirth.
Absent these hormones, about half of women face some degree of vaginal dryness and thinning of vaginal tissues, which can make sex uncomfortable, if not painful.
One of the best frontline treatments for restoring vaginal health is through hormone therapies, namely vaginal estrogen ointments that you apply a couple of times a week.
Even if you’re taking systemic hormone therapy, adding these topical treatments can make a big difference and help with lubrication, as well as vaginal itching and thinning vaginal tissues.
If your sexual health issues are more mental than physical — your interest in sex has waned — we’ve found that hormone therapy can help. We offer systemic hormone replacement therapies that can include testosterone, which can very much boost libido.
If you’d prefer not to use hormones to boost libido, the next two items on our list become more important.
Like other areas of your body, regular use can make a big difference, and this is very much true of your sexual health. Just as joints need to be regularly exercised, the same principle applies to your vaginal health.
When you’re dealing with lower estrogen levels, this approach becomes even more important. If your body registers inactivity, it’s less likely to send resources in. If, however, your body registers that you’re still sexually active, it directs resources to your vagina to keep up with the use.
We also want to point out that you don’t need a partner for this, either. There are ways that you can maintain your vaginal health on your own, and we’re happy to discuss this with you.
Many women have found that reassessing their sex lives is important during this time. For example, for women struggling with lubrication issues, more foreplay can be a great approach that not only allows for more lubrication, but it can also help with intimacy.
As well, many women find that their bodies change considerably after menopause and they become foreign to them.
Given all this change in very little time, it’s important to practice acceptance and understand that your sex life doesn’t need to be like it was — it can be something different and equally as enjoyable. So, take some time to experiment to see what works and what doesn’t and redefine your sex life.
If you’d like a more personalized plan for addressing sexual health issues during and after menopause, schedule an appointment with us by calling our Columbia or Greenbelt, Maryland, office or by using our online booking feature today.
