Personal Injury Law

Women More Likely Than Men To Have Age-Related Sexual Symptoms

By Chrissie Cole

A new study, Sex, Menopause & Relationship, found men and women 50 and older expects the desire for and ability to have sex to lessen with age.

The findings also suggest women were more likely to be surprised and less prepared for physical changes.

Harris Interactive conducted an online survey that included 705 heterosexual adults, made up of both men and women, between 50 and 70 years old.

The survey found sixty-seven percent of surveyed women reported one or more menopause-related sexual symptoms such as vaginal dryness 49%, low sex drive 47% and pain during intercourse 23%.

Fifty-nine percent of surveyed men reported experiencing sexual symptoms. 48% said they were unable to sustain an erection while 30% reported the inability to achieve an erection and 16% reported low sex drive.

Overall, seventy-one percent of survey participants anticipate the frequency of sex to slow down with age. The bulk of participants believe men are more susceptible than women to experience sexual symptoms that will hinder sexual activity with age. However, 67% of the women versus 59% of the men reported having one or more symptoms.

Sixty-five percent of the women surveyed who reported menopausal sexual symptoms, said they had not foreseen such symptoms, compared to fifty-one percent of surveyed men.

"The survey highlights knowledge gaps about the many challenges men and women are faced with as they grow older," said David B. Schwartz, MD, who practices obstetrics and gynecology at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati.

"The bulk of survey participants believe men are more prone to sexual symptoms than that of women. In part, this may be because of the ease of readily accessible information about erectile dysfunction. By contrast, most women facing menopause have far less information about the symptoms they will likely experience available to them.

The study was funded by Duramed Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Barr Pharmaceuticals. #

Full post as published by InjuryBoard on September 30, 2008 (boomark / email).