Past research finds that after menopause some women experience negative changes such as vaginal dryness, decreased libido, and decreased orgasm quality; very little research inquires about positive changes. In contrast, this study shifts the research focus from whether women experience menopausal changes to how women view any changes in sex life. Based on 30 in-depth interviews with heterosexual and lesbian women, the author finds that most women emphasize cultural and social issues, such as relationship status and quality, health, and sexual history, rather than menopausal changes when they describe sex after menopause. However, she finds a difference by sexual orientation in how women handle problems in sex. The author concludes by discussing the implication of this research for future menopause and sex research; most important, she emphasizes studying sex in the context of women's lives rather than as a result of the biological changes of menopause.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Avis, Nancy E., and Sonja M. McKinlay. 1991. A longitudinal analysis of women's attitudes toward the menopause: Results from the Massachusetts Women's Health Study. Maturitas13:65-79.
2.
Barbach, Lonnie. 1993a. The pause: A closer look at menopause and sexuality. Siecus Report21 (5): 1-5.
3.
Barbach, Lonnie. 1993b. The pause: Positive approaches to menopause. New York: Dutton.
4.
Benjamin, Jessica. 1988. The bonds of love: Psychoanalysis, feminism and the problem of domination. New York: Pantheon.
5.
Berg, Bruce. 2001. Qualitative research methods for the social sciences. 4th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
6.
Blumstein, Philip, and Pepper Schwartz. 1983. American couples: Money, work, sex. New York: William Morrow.
7.
Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.
8.
Chornesky, Alice. 1998. Multicultural perspectives on menopause and the climacteric. Affilia13 (1): 31-46.
9.
Cole, Ellen, and Esther Rothblum. 1991. Lesbian sex at menopause: As good or better than ever. In Lesbians at midlife: The creative transition, an anthology, edited by Barbara Sang, Joyce Warshow, and Adrienne J. Smith. San Francisco: Spinsters Aunt Lute.
10.
Coney, Sandra. 1991. The menopause industry: A guide to medicine's “discovery” of the mid-life woman. 2d ed. Melbourne, Australia: Spinifex Press Ltd.
11.
Connell, Robert W. 1987. Gender and power: Society, the person, and sexual politics. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
12.
Connell, Robert W. 1995. Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press.
13.
Conway-Turner, Katherine. 1992. Sex, intimacy and self-esteem: The case of the African-American older woman. Journal of Women and Aging4 (1): 91-105.
14.
Darling, C. A., and J. K. Davidson Sr. 1986. Enhancing relationships: Understanding the feminine mystique of pretending orgasm. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy12 (3): 182-196.
15.
Deeks, Amanda A., and Marita McCabe. 2001. Sexual function and the menopausal woman: The importance of age and partner's sexual functioning. Journal of Sex Research38 (3): 219-225.
16.
Deveaux, Monique. 1994. Feminism and empowerment: A critical reading of Foucault. Feminist Studies20:223-247.
17.
Dworkin, Andrea. 1987. Intercourse. New York: Free Press.
18.
Giuffre, Patti, and Christine Williams. 1994. Boundary lines: Labeling sexual harassment in restaurants. Gender & Society8:378-401.
19.
Grambs, Jean D. 1989. Women over forty: Visions and realities. New York: Springer.
20.
Hawton, Keith, Dennis Gath, and Ann Day. 1994. Sexual function in a community sample of middle-aged women with partners: Effects of age, marital, socioeconomic, psychiatric, gynecological and menopausal factors. Archives of Sexual Behavior23:375-395.
21.
hooks, bell. 1994. Outlaw culture. New York: Routledge.
22.
Hurlbert, D. F., C. Apt, and S. M. Rabehl. 1993. Enhancing women's partnerships with health providers in hormone replacement therapy decision-making: Research and practice directions. Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy19 (2): 154-165.
23.
Jones, Jill. 1997. Representations of menopause and their health care implications: A qualitative study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine13 (1): 58-65.
24.
Kitzinger, Celia, and Sue Wilkinson. 1993. Theorizing heterosexuality: Editorial introduction. In Heterosexuality: A feminism and psychology reader, edited by Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger. London: Sage.
25.
Landau, Carol, Michele G. Cyr, and Anne W. Moulton. 1994. The complete book of menopause: Every woman's guide to good health. New York: Putnam.
26.
Leiblum, Sandra R. 1990. Sexuality and the midlife woman. Psychology of Women Quarterly14:495-508.
27.
Lock, Margaret. 1993. The politics of mid-life and menopause: Ideologies for the second sex in North America and Japan. In Knowledge, power, and practice: The anthropology of medicine and everyday life, edited by Shirley Lindenbaum and Margaret Lock. Berkeley: University of California Press.
28.
Lorber, Judith. 1997. Gender and the social construction of illness. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
29.
Lorber, Judith. 2001. Night to his day: The social construction of gender. In Feminist frontiers 5, edited by Laurel Richardson, Verta Taylor, and Nancy Whittier. New York: McGraw-Hill.
30.
Love, Susan, with Karen Lindsey. 1997. Dr. Susan Love's hormone book. New York: Random House.
31.
MacKinnon, Catharine. 1987. Feminism unmodified: Discourses on life and law. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
32.
Mansfield, Phyllis K., Anna M. Voda, and Patricia B. Koch. 1995. Predictors of sexual response changes in heterosexual midlife women. Health Values19 (1): 10-20.
33.
Martin, Emily. 1987. The woman in the body: A cultural analysis of reproduction. Boston: Beacon.
34.
Martin, Karen A. 1996. Puberty, sexuality and the self: Boys and girls at adolescence. New York: Routledge.
35.
Morokoff, Patricia J. 1988. Sexuality in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. Psychology of Women Quarterly12:489-511.
36.
Murray, John B. 1998. Physiological mechanisms of sexual dysfunction side effects associated with antidepressant medication. Journal of Psychology132 (4): 407-416.
37.
Palmore, Erdman B. 1997. Sexism and ageism. In Handbook on women and aging, edited by Jean M. Coyle. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
38.
Pringle, Rosemary. 1992. Absolute sex? Unpacking the sexuality/gender relationship. In Rethinking sex: Social theory and sexuality research, edited by Robert Connell and Gary Dowsett. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
39.
Puretz, S. L., and A. Haas. 1993. Sexual desire and responsiveness following hysterectomy and menopause. Journal of Women and Aging5 (2): 3-15.
40.
Rich, Adrienne. 1980. Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society5 (4): 631-660.
41.
Rothblum, Esther. 1994. Transforming lesbian sexuality. Psychology of Women Quarterly18:627-641.
42.
Rubin, Lillian. 1990. Erotic wars. New York: HarperCollins.
43.
Schneider, Beth E., and Meredith Gould. 1987. Social control of female sexuality. In Analyzing gender: A handbook of social science research, edited by Beth B. Hess and Myra Marx Ferree. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Strauss, Anselm L. 1987. Qualitative analysis for social scientists. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
46.
West, Candace, and Don H. Zimmerman. 1987. Doing gender. Gender & Society1:125-151.
47.
Wiederman, Michael W. 1997. Pretending orgasm during sexual intercourse: Correlates in a sample of young adult women. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy23 (2): 131-139.
48.
Winterich, Julie, and Debra Umberson. 1999. How women experience menopause: The importance of social context. Journal of Women and Aging11 (4): 57-73.
