Are you feeling pain during sex after menopause? If yes, it can cause severe damage to your sexual health. The discomfort and dryness from vaginal atrophy result in vaginal pain and decrease your sexual energy while affecting your relationships. There’s no purpose in gliding into your golden ages by putting sexual pleasure aside. In this article, we’ll discuss the link between menopause and dyspareunia and explore treatment choices.
Hormonal Changes:
Female sexual health after 40 declines and postmenopausal women are well-aware of hormone changes. Serious fluctuations in hormonal level start 4-5 years before menopause, resulting in appearance menopausal symptoms, including:
- weight gain
- hot flashes
- vaginal discharge
- changed vaginal capacity
- night sweats
- vaginal dryness
- low sex drive
- dyspareunia or painful sex
The biggest wrongdoer for all these signs of menopause is decreased estrogen levels. Estrogen is the principal female hormone responsible for the regulation of many biological functions, including the menstrual cycle and fertility.
While it’s common for estrogen levels to change during the menstrual cycle, a maintained drop in levels pushes the woman into menopause. Gynecologists and physicians regard a woman to have entered menopause if she does not have periods for 12 months.
Low Estrogen Levels and Painful Intercourse:
Reduced estrogen levels decrease the amount of moisturizer produced in the vagina. In the absence of natural lubrication, penetration becomes painful and possibly tears the sensitive tissues of the area. Also, the insufficiency of estrogen changes the size and shape of the vagina. Hormones are important messengers of the human body, and any variation in their level affects the physical and mental health of the person.
A woman may experience painful intercourse after menopause, but the reason could be an absence of intimate desire. Since estrogen, in combination with another vital female sex hormone progesterone, control fertility, optimal levels directly give rise to sexual desire in women. However, a decline in their level can affect women’s sexual health after 40. Without the required vaginal estrogens, most women may find sex as physically unpleasant but also undesirable.
Dyspareunia and Menopause:
Painful sex is medically termed dyspareunia. According to the Harvard Medical School, dyspareunia is the pain before, during, or after sex. The cause of the pain may be identified or undiscovered, and the sexual dysfunction occasional or continuous.
It doesn’t usually happen for women to not experience chronic pain for a long time, and then encounter a painful flare-up. When the underlying cause of dyspareunia is menopause, it is fortunately treatable.
How to Stay Sexually Healthy?
If you stopped having sex after menopause, you’re not the only woman who has done that. But that doesn’t imply you can’t return to your sexually active life. The following treatments can be followed to overcome the pain during sex and improve women’s sexual health after 40.
Vaginal Lubricants:
Usually, sex hurts due to the inadequacy of vaginal lubrication. The most reasonable choice is to apply a good-quality lubricant. It’s recommended to use a water-based lubricant to secure your body from the risk of reacting to the ingredients. Lubricants lessen the physical discomfort with penetration, leading to enjoyable intimacy.
Vaginal Moisturizers:
Vaginal moisturizers are different in nature from lubricants. They are not used while engaging in sexual activity. They are vaginal insertions that instill moisture into the delicate tissues of the vaginal and vulvar areas. You insert them in your genital area twice or thrice a week before bedtime.
Vaginal Estrogen Therapy:
Estrogen Replacement Therapy supplements back the depleted hormone naturally. The most well-known supplement form is taking an estrogen tablet or using a topical estrogen cream. Although there is some debate about ERT due to some data suggesting it elevates the risk for blood clots, cancer, and other health problems, in older women.
However, further research on the topic revealed that the insignificantly raised risk for postmenopausal women depends on their age. For some women, ERT provided more advantages than dangers. Before starting estrogen therapy, talk to your health care professional or seek online consultation at Harbor Compounding Pharmacy, which is one of the best compounding pharmacies in California that works with the world’s most experienced Rhythmic Hormone Experts. It provides patients the opportunity to get their customized dosages of hormones prepared. If one individual needs a little less estrogen, and the other one needs a little more of it, they assist prescribers to write the ideal compounded prescription that gives just the precise quantity to keep hormones in equilibrium.
Engage in Longer Foreplay:
Without intercourse, you might feel as if you are not engaging in sexual activity. Reasonably, it’s time that you rethink sexual intimacy. Foreplay can be evenly interesting and ending in pleasure for both partners. Sometimes we hurry to reach the climax when using the time to savor each other makes everything different.
As you mature, a prolonged kiss might fulfill all your needs. Or progress towards sex by touching and cuddling first. The potentialities for intimate foreplay are endless.
Commit to Regular Sex:
When you don’t have sex regularly your vagina changes in shape, primarily after menopause. It becomes tighter and smaller, making penetrative sex more painful even when you’re fully aroused. One way of efficient treatment is to practice regular sex. While this might appear illogical, but you’ll be surprised to see your vaginal lining gain flexibility, and you’ll become capable of handling prolonged and deeper thrusting.
Reference Post Article:
https://harborcompoundingcalifornia.wordpress.com/2020/09/16/postmenopausal-intercourse-will-no-longer-hurt-learn-how/
