Japanese scientists conducted a cross-sectional study and found that regular sexual activity in peri- and postmenopausal women is associated with significantly less vulvar pain, dryness, and irritation in everyday life. The study was published in the journal Menopause.
Decreased levels of estrogen and other sex hormones during peri- and postmenopause can reduce a woman's life expectancy and significantly impair quality of life due to genitourinary menopausal syndrome. This syndrome can manifest as sexual (affecting sex life), genital (vulvovaginal), and urinary (related to the urinary tract) symptoms. To provide adequate medical and counseling care to women during this period, knowledge about the relationship between these manifestations is essential.
In 2019, Satoru Takahashi of Nihon University and colleagues collected data for the GENJA epidemiological study of genitourinary menopausal syndrome in Japanese women using a telephone survey of 4,134 women aged 40–79. Vulvovaginal symptoms were assessed using the VSQ questionnaire, and sexual function and symptoms were assessed using the Japanese version of the FSFI. The current analysis included 911 participants (mean age 53.7 years) who were sexually active in the previous year. The researchers defined the regular sexual activity group as women who had been sexually active in the previous three months, and the infrequent group as women who had been sexually active in the past year but not in the past three months.
A total of 716 participants reported regular sexual activity (342 aged 40–49, 190 aged 50–59, 114 aged 60–69, and 70 aged 70–79), while the remaining 195 reported infrequent sexual activity (53 aged 40–49, 47 aged 50–59, 49 aged 60–69, and 46 aged 70–79). The average age in the first group was 52.4 years, and in the second, 58.2 years. In both groups, participants noted an age-related decrease in sexual desire, arousal, and frequency of orgasm (but not satisfaction with it), while most participants did not experience pain during intercourse.
Regarding genitourinary menopausal syndrome symptoms such as dyspareunia and lack of vaginal lubrication during intercourse, there were no statistically significant differences between groups until age 70 and older. Furthermore, levels of vulvar pain, dryness, and irritation in daily life were significantly lower in those who were sexually active regularly, and this pattern was observed across all age groups studied.
Thus, regular sexual activity was weakly correlated with sexual symptoms of genitourinary menopausal syndrome, but was significantly associated with fewer genital manifestations.
It has previously been shown that the age of menopause is associated with the regularity of sexual activity (the menstrual cycle, on average, lasts longer with more frequent sex); genetic variants also play a role.
