There’s been a lot of talk lately about womens’ ’sexual problems’. And most of it from the pharmaceutical industry. It seems that our changeable sexual desire is a medical disorder and medical treatment. Good heavens, we must need some drugs!

After all, look at the extremely popular (and profitable) Viagra, the drug for mens’ erectile problems. Although we are not men (this is not often obvious to researchers) and we experience sexuality quite differently to men, the competitive commercial race has started for “the female Viagra”.

One early contender in the race is the over-the-counter hormone supplement dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). The reasoning behind DHEA is based on dividing sexual function into two components - desire and orgasmic response. Both of these functions are affected by decreases of estrogen and androgens during and after menopause. So do we replace the hormones and increase desire? Perhaps.

But many of us have strong ideas about how much desire we think we should have.

Your body knows what it’s doing. If you have no desire, then you have no desire. Your body has no plans, either now or in the long-term, for pregnancy, and feels little need for the business of penetrative sex.

(If you feel you want to regain your earlier levels of sexual desire see the resources at Ageing and Sex)

In Our Bodies, Ourselves Dr Susan Levenstein writes that our sexuality can be affected by the mood swings of early menopause, the symptoms of the menopausal transition, the physical effects of hormone lack and the way we and others see menopause.

Women wracked with anxiety from hormone swings, soaked with sweat from hot flashes, or in what feels like a constant state of premenstrual tension are unlikely to be feeling very sexy. Once the ovaries have stopped putting out hormones, vaginal dryness can make penetration painful. And the symbolic value of menopause can itself make us feel old, unattractive, and sexless. And what’s the point of it?

Or you can find a decreased interest in the sexual side of life is unimportant to you or even welcome. After decades of being driven by our sexuality, many of us find the calming of the senses that can accompany menopause to open us up to a new independence, and to enthusiasm for exploring new interests.

Tags: dhea, libido, popular