(Newswire.net — February 6, 2020) — Did you know that there are recent studies about sex and menopause that you should probably get your hands on? You might be surprised with the findings! We know we were. But the more we read, the more it made sense. After all, if you don’t use it, you lose it. This is true about anything in the human body.
After all – if you haven’t been to the gym in a long time, your muscles might be feeling a little “lost” themselves. If you haven’t practiced playing the piano in months, your memory alone won’t save you. And if you haven’t been getting it on in the bedroom, chances are that you are giving a clear signal to your body that you are out of the childbearing game.
What is Menopause?
Menopause is when the female body winds down, periods start to dwindle down until they’re gone, and they are no longer able to bear children. This comes with an assortment of famous side effects like hot flashes, cramps, uterine bleeding and mood swings – we know that online pharmacies like medicinedirect.co.uk have their own menopause corner, with Femoston and Evorel galore. It’s a tough time for women – a rite of passing from childbearing age to the age when they can concentrate on themselves rather than on kids. For many, it’s a beautiful time of self-discovery.
But at what age do we experience menopause and what factors can lead to things like early menopause? There have been some exciting new studies that shed some light on who is more likely to experience menopause early, and who is more likely to hold out and menstruate for longer.
The average age of women who experience menopause is about 49 to about the age of 52.
What Studies Have We Read?
“Researchers found that women who reported having sexual activity weekly were 18% less likely to have experienced menopause than those who had sex less than once a month”
-CNN
Whoa. That’s quite a statistic, isn’t it? This study was conducted at University College London. Megan Arnot, the Ph.D. student that is researching this phenomenon explains that this is very likely due to our bodies wanting to keep safe – because our immune system is much less active during ovulation. When our immune system is down, we are more likely to get pregnant. But at the same time, this kind of immune impairment puts us at risk of getting sick.
Why would our bodies put themselves at risk month after month if there is little sexual activity to make a pregnancy likely?
Megan Arnot also explains that menopause is a natural way for women to make sure that their grandchildren survived and didn’t compete with their own children for resources – this theory is called the “Grandmother Theory” – it’s sweet, and it would make sense in a hunter-gatherer world where resources are limited and we have to make sure the healthies have the best chance at survival. According to this theory, women simply have to “invest their energy elsewhere” instead of bearing children, because it’s better for the community.
Married vs. Single vs. Housemate Pheromones
Here are some other amazing statistics from the study: there was a theory that if you simply live with a male, their male pheromones will keep our cycles returning for longer and ward of natural menopause. No such thing! This was studied again and again, and there seems to be no correlation between the simple proximity of a male. It has to be sex.
The University of London study was conducted on women who were around 45 years of age, were married or living with a partner, had an average of two children. This study was conducted over a 10 year period.
The Catch
The catch here is this: if you have less sex (less than monthly in this study), it doesn’t mean that you’ll experience early menopause. It’s just that having more sex probably means that you’ll go a bit longer than the time of your natural menopause. If you’re reading a lot of the recent headlines (this study was released in early 2020) and they’re all crying wolf and saying that if you don’t immediately hit the sack then menopause will be soon upon you – don’t worry.
Some journalists just get too excited and don’t read the fine print. There is also the correlation possibility that one doesn’t have anything to do with the other – or in any case, not in the way that we’re ready to interpret it. In a statement to Cosmopolitan Magazine, Hugh Taylor MD from Yale Medicine writes that there is a possibility that early menopause makes people not want to have sex very much.
And a high sex drive might mean that women aren’t feeling very menopausal – and want to continue to have sex.
In conclusion, be careful about reading too much into new studies that come out before they’re 100% confirmed and cleared up by multiple sources. This study simply does not allow for a cause-and-effect scenario, so relax, ladies!