Menopause and Sexuality

Menopause is defined as the permanent cessation of menstruation resulting from loss of ovarian follicular activity. It is a natural event occurring, on average, at the age of 5 1.3 years. Natural menopause is a retrospective clinical diagnosis based on 12 months of amenorrhea from the woman’s last menstrual period. Sexuality is an important part of women’s health and women’s quality of life in all stage of life including during menopause. Many factors can affect women’s sexual life, including biological, psychological, and socio-cultural factors. Menopause follows various changes in every aspect including physiologically and psycho-logically, and this raises various problems, one of which is related to the fulfillment of sexual needs. It follows that a multidimensional approach to the management of sexual issues is of particular importance in menopause. Female sexual dysfunction (FSD) defined as any sexual complaint or problem resulting from disorders of desire, arousal, orgasm or sexual pain that causes marked distressed or interpersonal difficulty11. Declining levels of sex steroids (estrogens and androgens) during menopausal transition, also play a major role in the impairment of sexual response. Treatment should be individualized.