Early Menopause and Sexuality
Female sexuality consists of the combination of a woman's sexual identity, sexual relationships and sexual functions. Social and cultural elements, sexual beliefs, a woman's general health condition, fertility, and her relationship with her partner are the main factors that affect a woman's sexual life.
Menopause is the most important factor
A woman's sexual life does not follow the same pattern throughout her life. Old age and menopause are the most important factors affecting women's sexual life. The earlier a woman enters menopause, the more complex and serious the sexual dysfunctions become. If a woman who entered early menopause did not have children even though she wanted to in the future, concerns about fertility make her complaints more complicated.
There may be many complaints
Early menopause often negatively affects the woman and her partner, and therefore the sexual life of the couple. In addition to sexual desire, arousal, orgasm and pain problems, infertility problems are the main difficulties faced by women in early menopause.
Be careful before age 40
Early menopause is when a woman stops menstruating before the age of 40. It develops due to premature ovarian failure or treatments such as chemotherapy, surgical removal of the ovaries, and radiotherapy. The frequency of early menopause due to ovarian failure is 1%. Unfortunately, the number of women suffering from early menopause due to increasing cancer cases is increasing day by day.
What health problems does it cause?
The risk of cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, depression, brain aging and stroke increases in women who enter menopause early compared to their peers who do not enter menopause.
Who should receive hormone therapy in early menopause?
The International Menopause Society and the European Menopause and Andrology Association recommend that women who develop ovarian failure and have no medical obstacle to taking hormone replacement therapy receive hormone therapy until the age of 51, which is the natural menopause age. Hormone therapy has no place in patients with early menopause due to gynecological and breast cancers and their treatments.
How is it treated?
- In sexual desire disorders and arousal disorders, if there are no contraindications, estrogen and testosterone treatments increase sexual desire, the frequency of satisfactory sexual intercourse, and reduce sexual stress and anxiety. Bupropion treatment is used to increase sexual desire in women whose hormone therapy is inconvenient.
- Genital arousal disorders are seen as painful sexual intercourse due to vaginal dryness, urinary incontinence, and burning sensation after intercourse. Vaginal estrogen treatments are very effective in these complaints caused by atrophy in the urinary and genital tracts. In recent years, studies on the use of testosterone creams have continued.
- In patients with cancer, long-term moisturizers and lubricants used before intercourse reduce vaginal irritation and provide relief.
- Hormone replacement therapy and testosterone treatments are therapeutic for orgasmic disorders.
- Pelvic floor rehabilitation treats both orgasmic disorders and urinary complaints in patients with pelvic floor weakness.
- Sexual pain disorders develop due to a variety of reasons and require treatment for the causes. Vaginal estrogens are preferred in the treatment of painful sexual intercourse due to vaginal atrophy. If diabetes causes neuropathic pain in the genital area, it requires sugar control and treatment with pregabalin-derived drugs. Pelvic floor relaxation exercises and physiotherapy are useful for pain caused by excessive thickening of the pelvic muscles.
- Early menopause is a condition that causes many different sexual problems and requires different solutions. There is no single type of treatment because complaints are often intertwined. Assuming that sexual problems are solved only causes the problems to become more complex.
- As a result, sexual dysfunctions are very common in women with early menopause. They experience sexual problems much more frequently than their peers and women who have gone through menopause at normal ages. They can get help from a sexual medicine doctor to solve these problems.