How can menopause affect my relationship status?

Our sexuality may be changing physically at menopause, but whether or not we are distressed about it depends to a considerable extent on the status of our relationships, our health, and our past sexual experiences. We can find ourselves in sexual turmoil, filled with new doubts or new passions. Or we may accept the sexual changes we notice as part of our aging. We may want to change old relationships or end them. We may feel hurled into physical or emotional makeovers by forces either inside or outside us. We may feel more stuck than we have ever felt before. Or we may not feel very different at all. Our sexuality at menopause is affected by all our earlier emotional and physical experiences of sex, including adolescent sexual identity and experimentation; childbearing and child rearing, if we have children; and experiences of sexual abuse or assault. By the time we reach menopause, many of us have experienced several sexual relationships, while some of us have experienced only one and experienced several distinct stages in its growth or stagnation or both, and others none.

Menopause (the change of life ending your fertility) can affect your relationship status by making you less interested in sex and physical intimacy. During menopause, you may experience vaginal dryness and irritation that make sex uncomfortable or painful.

The mood swings, feelings of sadness, and emotional ups and downs of menopause can also cause you to lose your desire for sex. Together, these conditions can threaten your relationship.

These changes occur in only some women and even those women may not necessarily experience this whole list of effects. Talk openly to your doctor and your partner about the changes you're experiencing so that you can maintain a healthy relationship.