How does a satisfying sex life affect aging?

Obstetrician and gynecologis Jennifer Ashton, MD, discusses how a woman's satisfying sex life can affect aging and longevity positively.

Transcript

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There are so many women who have problems in their sex life, and I feel in the 21st century, that's totally unacceptable.

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[UPBEAT MUSIC] A good sex life is really, really important

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over your entire life, and it is actually correlated with longevity. There was a study done in which women

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who felt greater sexual satisfaction in their own lives actually lived several years longer.

00:27

They had a longer life expectancy than women who were dissatisfied with their sex lives. Obviously, it's a very individual issue.

00:34

And I tell my patients over the course of their lifetime, their sex life will not be the same decade by decade. It shouldn't be the same.

00:41

So there'll be ups and downs, pardon the pun. There'll be peaks and valleys, but it's really, really important for each woman to find her own definition of what

00:52

a satisfying sex life may be. It might be once a week. It might be once a month. It might be once a year, and that might

00:59

be OK for one individual woman. They should try not to succumb to the pressure of keeping up with the Joneses when it talks about their own sex life.

01:08

But certainly there are so many women who have problems in their sex life and I feel are not comfortable asking for help,

01:16

even talking about it with friends or their doctors or with sex therapists. And in the 21st century, I just feel like that's

01:23

totally unacceptable. So if you're unsatisfied with your sex life, I think that you owe it to yourself and your partner

01:30

to do whatever you can to be satisfied with it. And whether that's couples therapy or individual therapy

01:37

or getting a vibrator or getting a new partner or getting into better shape or fixing whatever the logistic or anatomic or psychological problem there

01:47

maybe is, I think that you'll be much happier. And that will directly impact your overall fitness