Sexuality in the Aging Couple, Part I: The Aging Woman

Authors and Disclosures

Irwin W. Kuzmarov, MD, FRCSC, Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery (Urology), McGill University; Director of Professional and Hospital Services, Santa Cabrini Hospital, Montreal, QC; Past President, Canadian Society for the Study of the Aging Male.

Jerald Bain, BScPhm, MD, MSc, FRCPC, CertEndo, BA, Professor Emeritus, Department of Medicine, Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Mount Sinai Hospital; University of Toronto, Toronto, ON; Past President, Canadian Society for the Study of the Aging Male.

Disclosure: Dr. Kuzmarov has been a speaker for many companies that manufacture and/or market testosterone products, medication for erectile dysfunction, and for benign and malignant prostatic disease.

Disclosure: Dr. Bain has given lectures at CME events sponsored by Schering-Plough Canada and Solvay Pharma, and has served on Solvay Pharma Advisory Board.

Sidebar: Key Points

• Although there is a decrease in sexual activity with age, particularly in women, sexual activity persists well into the senior years.

• Over the past decade, however, female sexual function and dysfunction have emerged as area of increasing study and therapy.

• With aging, there is a delayed or diminished vaginal lubrication and vasocongestion, diminished frequency of contraction of the vagina, and decreased frequency of orgasm.

• The subjective experience of sexual arousal in women is not necessarily well correlated with genital vasocongestion; there are a multiplicity of factors that can disturb sexual desire and sexual responsiveness, including a diverse array of physical, psychological, or therapeutic factors.

• Concern about the use of testosterone in women resides in the possibility of unmasking or causing breast cancer de novo; however, testosterone therapy may be an appropriate consideration, at least in the short term, in women with reduced sexual interest who are at low risk for the development of breast cancer.