Having sex once a week is a typical recommendation for couples to keep the spark alive, so to speak. But when you reach that particular age when menopause will soon become a reality, having sex may offer an advantage that is more than just romance — it could delay menopause and give more women more health benefits.
Scientists at the University of London who conducted a study concluded that women who have sex at least once a week are 28% less likely to enter menopause early compared to women who had sex less than once a month. The latter, however, may experience a similar, albeit diminished, effect. They are 19% less likely to experience early menopause compared to women who do not have sex once a month.
While this the first study to establish a link between the frequency of sex and the onset of menopause, defined as having no period for 12 straight months or more, the researchers have not yet identified the reason behind it. They suspected that the difference lies in the evolutionary process that the female body undergoes.
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"If a woman is having little or infrequent sex when approaching midlife, then the body will not be receiving the physical cues of a possible pregnancy," Megan Arnot and Ruth Mace, scientists at University College London, wrote in their report published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
According to their theory, it may be healthier "for the women to cease fertility" if pregnancy is no longer in their future plans. Ovulation makes a woman more susceptible to disease because the immune system is impaired, Arnot explained in a report by Reuters.
The study examined data on nearly 3,000 women in the U.S. who participated in a multi-decade health study called "SWAN." It aimed to collect data and track biological and psychological changes that happen when women in their mid-life enter menopause.
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The average age of the women was 45, and they were mostly married or in a relationship or living with their partner. CNN reports the researchers also looked at whether women living with a male partner affected how sooner or later they experienced menopause, testing if increased exposure to male pheromones make a difference (they do not)
Good to know: The definition of sexual activity in the study was not limited to intercourse, but also includes oral sex, self-stimulation, and sexual touching or caressing.
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