Sexual activity among middle-aged Finnish women

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Sexual activity among middle-aged Finnish women
 

– Reported, January 19, 2012

 

An increasing awareness of the need to address sexual and orgasm experiences as part of life quality and an understanding of the great individual differences between women play roles in women’s health and medical care across the specialities. Information is lacking as to how negative attitude toward self (NATS) and performance impairment (PI) are associated with sexual activity of middle-aged women. We examined the associations of sexual experience, orgasm experience, and lack of sexual desire with perceived health and potential explanatory variables of NATS and PI.

Questionnaire was mailed to 2 population-based random samples of menopausal or soon-to-be menopausal women (n = 5510, 70% response) stratified according to age (42–46 and 52–56 years). In multivariate analyses of the associations with the outcome variables, perceived health, NATS, and PI were used as covariates in 6 models in which exercise, menstrual symptoms, and illness indicators were taken into account as well.

Sexual activity variables were associated with perceived health. When present, NATS formed associations with sexual and orgasm experiences, whereas strenuous exercise formed associations with orgasm among 42–46-year-old women alone. Strenuous exercise was not associated with orgasm experience among older women.

NATS and PI are closely tied to orgasm experiences and the meaning of the roles needs to be exposed. Sexual activity deserves to be addressed more actively in patient contact at least with perimenopausal women.

Impact of menopause on health or sexuality is still imprecise. Appropriate questions have either not been asked or their outcomes are unclear . Women’s health has in part been connected with reproduction and gynaecological issues , and many practicing physicians believe that the period at or following menopause is associated with health-related problems and with less sexual activity than before . As an indirect example of health and wellbeing, a recent biological finding linked a woman’s long late-life period after menopause with an increased number of offspring . Other similar social indicators are expected with health, sexual, and reproductive issues in the future.
Perceived health status is an indicator of general health and life quality. High education and high household income have presented themselves as indicators of good health . Some ambiguity is present in the findings, however. Menopausal women reported fewer problems and ill health than expected in one study: 80% of the women did not to report depression or 60% did not report hot flushes . In another, 95% of otherwise productive 52–56-year-old and up to 64% of 42–46-year-old women reported that they suffered from mild, moderate, or severe climacteric symptoms . Although 34% of Finnish women reported good perceived health in 1972, 51% in 1981, and 60% in 1992, health is expected to get systematically worse with age . Poor economic life situation and unemployment significantly reduced the mental health status .
Many menopausal or soon-to-be menopausal women continue to perceive their health to be good, take care of themselves, and live active and vigorous lives . Women with higher education, regular exercise, and spare-time activities seem to feel better and have fewer complaints than those having less education, infrequent exercise, and no spare-time activities . Further, 45–55-year-old women reported better health when they had experienced a nonterm pregnancy, were in fulltime employment, were separated or divorced, exercised more than once a week, engaged in swimming, and believed that menopausal women worry about losing their minds .
Libido, or the frequency of sexual activities, was not seriously affected by the late perimenopausal period in a study on menopausal transition in a population-based sample of 45–55-year old women (n = 2001), whereas more decline was recorded in three sexual issues (sexual responsivity, total score of sexual functioning, woman’s positive feelings towards her partner) by the postmenopausal period . Women’s sexual activities tend to occur within the context of a relationship , and many issues influence them . Frequency of sexual intercourse appears to decrease with age but many Finnish women have let the researchers believe that climacterium rather than age would be to blame . On the other hand, many sexual experiences are defined and studied using male-dominated paradigms . And older individuals are thought to be sexually abstinent when they have medical problems or do not have a partner , which may or may not be the case.
Having an orgasm may be considered a powerful demonstration of a person’s health status. For instance, an inverse relationship was evident between orgasm frequency and mortality among men , but the same is not known about women. More than 2/3 of men (75%) but less than 1/3 of women (29%) always achieved orgasm with their partner . Approximately 15% of women have generally been reported to experience difficulties in reaching orgasm . Higher orgasm rates are recorded for older people .
Lack (or loss) of sexual desire is one of the three most common sexual complaints in the general population , but physicians continue to be baffled about the condition. It may be proper to say that the assessment of sexual disorders is a continuously evolving process. Women experiencing climacterium early are likely to perceive the problem of lack of sexual desire as a difficult issue , more problematic than older women do .
Major and minor depressive disorders are relatively common among middle-aged women, more common among women than men before the age of 55 years . These disorders are commonly thought to be associated with libido and sexual activity, and some components have been suggested to be associated with aging. In a chronic pain population, two factors of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-21) were consistently loaded: ‘the physical and somatic function’ and the ‘negative view of the self’ . It is not known how these components are connected with sexual activity of middle-aged women.
The purpose of the present study was to examine the associations of sexual experience, orgasm experience, and lack of sexual desire with perceived health as well as the roles of negative attitude toward self, performance impairment, strenuous exercise, and menopausal symptoms as the primary explanatory variables.

Outcome variables
The frequency of sexual experience (How often are you involved in sexual interaction or otherwise experience sexual pleasure; the experience may involve sexual intercourse or something else?) had 4 response options (times per day, week, or month, more seldom) that were grouped into 3 categories (at least once a week, at least once a month, more seldom) for analysis. Unlike many other investigations, the present study did not delimit sexual experience exclusively to intercourse – in part because sexual intercourse is not an activity equally shared among men and women: more Finnish women aged 34–74 years (7%) than men of the same age group (2%) have never had sexual intercourse [26]. Women (including lesbian women) having other preferences for sexual pleasure were given an equal chance to respond.
The frequency of orgasm experience (How often do you experience orgasm?) had 4 response options (times per day,week,month, more seldom) that were grouped into 3 categories (at least once a week, at least once a month, more seldom) for analysis.
Lack of sexual desire was solicited as one of the list of menopausal symptoms and expressed as an intensity on a continuum from 1 to 10 (1 having no lack of sexual desire at all, 10 having very severe lack of sexual desire) For the present study, four categories were used: 1 (no problem), 2–4 (slight problem), 5–7 (moderate problem), and 8–10 (severe problem).

All statistical analyses were performed separately for 42–46 and 52–56-year-old women. The percentages of the frequencies of sexual experiences and orgasm experiences as well as lack of sexual desire expressed as an intensity of symptoms by age group and perceived health. There was a general tendency that high frequencies of sexual experiences and good perceived health coincided with each other in both age groups. Next, 42–46-year-old women reported the frequency of orgasm experiences more clearly regardless of whether they perceived their health to be good or poor. Good perceived health was equally distributed. Women who perceived their health to be good also reported mild intensity of lack of sexual desire.

Poor perceived health seemed to be associated with the experience categories more clearly among the older women and with lack of sexual desire among the younger women. Lack of sexual desire appeared about equally serious for both age groups.

Perceived health formed non-significant associations in Models 2–6. NATS contributed in close to an equal strength both alone and together with other variables in Models 2–5 among 42–46-year-old women. When menopausal symptoms were added in Model 6, the association became more negative. Among 52–56-year-old women, NATS was the most negative in Model 2 but slightly increased in the positive direction in Models 3–6. PI was statistically significant both among 42–46-year-olds and 52–56-year-olds in Models 3 and 4. Strenuous exercise contributed in the significant positive vein in Models 5 and 6 among 42–46-year-old women alone. Menopausal symptoms contributed significantly among 42–46-year-olds and 52–56-year-olds.

After the adjustment of using “illness indicators,” the association between perceived health and lack of sexual desire (Model 1) was significant and stronger in the 42–46-year-old age group than in the 52–56-year-old one. The additional adjustment with NATS (Model 2) decreased the association more among 42–46-year-olds than among 52–56-year-olds; the association was not statistically significant. NATS was statistically significant in Model 2 only. PI also contributed negatively in close to equal strength among 42–46-year-olds and 52–56-year-olds in Models 2–5. When menopausal symptoms were added in Model 6, the association increased slightly in the positive direction both among 42–46-year-olds and 52–56-year-olds. Menopausal symptoms contributed significantly among 42–46-year-olds and 52–56-year-olds.

The present study indicated that the role of perceived health was relatively small in the stated three sexual issues among 42–46 and 52–56-year-old Finnish women. Statistically significant positive associations were observed in perceived health with sexual and orgasm experiences among 52–56-year-olds but not among 42–46-year-olds. As an explanatory variable, negative attitude toward self (NATS) was associated with sexual and orgasm experiences, whereas performance impairment (PI) was associated with the lack of sexual desire in both age groups. Strenuous exercise was associated with orgasm experiences in the age group of 42–46 years but not in the age group of 52–56 years. Menopausal symptoms were associated with orgasm experiences and the lack of sexual desire in both age groups.
The study was based on two older age groups of women (n = 5510) in a random sample of 21,101 individuals who responded to the initial questionnaire of the prospective follow-up survey entitled Health and Social Support (HeSSup) study. The data of the HeSSup study were representative of the Finnish population with a slight (59%) overrepresentation of women . Educated women and 52–56-year-old women were more enthusiastic in responding to the present study than the rest of the women .

In another Finnish study, most of 1308 surveyed women who turned out to be postmenopausal in a random sample of 2000 women aged 45–64 years reported good or rather good health. With the exception of hot flashes and irritability, most subjective health problems were associated with aging or something other and not with climacterium . Women feel better when these events are not present and the present study confirmed the assumption.
Roughly a third or more of the woman’s life span is spent following menopausal transition. This means a new existence for about 20–30 years after one has been active in personal and professional younger adult life. The number of these women will be increasing with expected life quality in those years. It is also fair to assume that many women wish to include sexual interaction of their choice as part of those years. Sexual and orgasm experiences existed among those middle-aged women who reported good or reasonably good health. In the health literature, a positive orientation of sexual and orgasm experiences should be highlighted for sexual health promotion purposes.

NATS and PI are closely tied to orgasm experiences and the meaning of the roles needs to be exposed. Sexual activity deserves to be addressed more actively in patient contact at least with perimenopausal women.

Credits:Ansa Ojanlatva, Juha Mäkinen, Hans Helenius,Katariina Korkeila, Jari Sundell, and Päivi Rautava

More Information at:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1513197/
 

 

– WF Team