SEXUALITY AND MENOPAUSE

Postmenopausal sexuoerotic health is multivariately determined by both intrinsic and extrinsic variables, some of which may predate the menopause. In a pilot study of 20 postmenopausal women, even when deterioration in sexual well-being was anticipated beforehand, it did not invitably materialize, but if it did so, it was not inevitably correlated with diminished partner availability. Postmenopausal ratings of erotosexual ideation, imagery, and practices indicated nondeterioration markedly more often than they did deterioration. There is increasing professional agreement that androgen maintains erotosexual functioning in women as well as men; and that, in minimal nonmasculinizing dosage, it can be included with good therapeutic effect in postmenopausal steroid replacement therapy.