Researchers discovered that women who reported to engage in sexual activity every week are 28% less likely to have experienced menopause than those who had sex less than once a month. Those who had sex every month were 19% less likely to have attained menopause, known as going for 12 months without a period, than those who had sex less than once a month.
While the study did not look at the reason for the link, the authors of the study said that the physical cues of sex may signal to the body that there is a possibility of getting pregnant. But for women who are not having sex frequently, earlier menopause may make more sense biologically.
Megan Arnot, the lead author of the study and a Ph.D. candidate in evolutionary anthropology at University College London said that if you are not going to reproduce, there is no point ovulating so you are better off using that energy elsewhere.
Importance of ovulation
A woman is more susceptible to disease during ovulation because their immune system is impaired. If the pregnancy was not gonna happen due to a lack of sexual activity, that means that it would not be beneficial for the body to allocate energy to the ovulation process. Instead, Arnot said, that the findings support the Grandmother Hypothesis, which is a theory that suggests that menopause evolved originally in humans to reduce the reproductive conflict between different generations of women and to make sure that their grandchildren survived and thrived.
Arnot stated that there may be a biological energetic trade-off between investing energy into ovulation and investing in something else like keeping active by looking after grandchildren. The research is based on the US Study of Women's Health Across the Nation, which has a unique look at the midlife health of women that started in 1996.
Almost 3,000 women in the data set had an average age of 45 when they started the study, they also had two children at least and they were mostly married or in a relationship or they were living with their partner. Around 45% of the women experienced natural menopause at the age of 52 and the interviews were carried out for more than 10 years.
At the beginning of the study, none of the women had entered menopause yet, but 46% were in early peri-menopause or they were starting to experience menopause symptoms like irregular periods and hot flashes and 54% were pre-menopausal or they were having regular cycles and showing no symptoms of peri-menopause or menopause.
In their analysis of the data, the researchers all ruled out the factors that could have explained association, including education, estrogen levels, race, body mass index, smoking habits and when a woman first had their period. Sexual activity was not just defined as intercourse, it also included oral sex, self-stimulation, and sexual touching or caressing.
Arnot stated that their study tested whether or not living with a male partner affected menopause. Existing theory suggests that increased exposure to male pheromones as a result of living with a man delayed menopause. But they found no link whether a male partner was present in the household or not.
The link between sex and menopause
This is the first time that research has shown a link between the frequency of having sex and the onset of menopause. The next step is to try to replicate the findings in other groups, although Arnot said that there was little available data on menopause and sex.
For women who are looking to delay the onset of symptoms like hot flashes that can cause discomfort in the years around the menopause, Arnot stated that more sex could not hurt, but that the study did not examine this issue.
