For Jane Fonda, “it’s over!” : is there an age to say goodbye to sexuality?

Is there an age to abandon the pleasures of the flesh? During an interview for the American show The Ellen DeGeneres Show, 83-year-old actress Jane Fonda recently opened up about her sex life. “I’m old and I’ve already had my doseindicated the actress at the sixty years of career. My favorite ex-husband, Ted Turner, always says if you wait too long, it fades. I believe he is right.” Indeed, past a certain age, sexuality can lose its flavor if it is not frequently stimulated, for both men and women. The opportunity for Sylvain Mimoun, gynecologist-andrologist in Paris, to answer the questions of Why doctor on the sexuality of seniors.

– How is the libido maintained?

The libido is maintained by the use of sexuality. The more we have a sex life, the more we maintain this desire, this sexuality. On the contrary, if for the slightest reason, we stop, the libido is spaced out and extinguished. There are, despite everything, very old people – over 80 – who continue to have a sexual life, but the more time passes, the more rare it is.

What happens very frequently with age, in women in particular, are the hormones that stop at the time of menopause. There are women who continue to have a sexual life, if only by caressing themselves, and others who, on the contrary, reduce their sexuality. The trouble is that when you start to reduce your sex life, the frequency drops drastically.

– What role does menopause play in women’s sexuality?

In France, the average age of menopause is considered to be 51 years old. Hormones are the essential driving force behind sexuality, but there are other elements that come into play, such as sexual urges. In short, in a woman, it is not by looking at the hormone level in the blood that we can determine whether her sex life is over or not, it is much more complex. It is a general climate which self-maintains sexuality or which, on the contrary, reduces it.

– How to maintain a sex life as a senior?

By having fun! What I tell my patients is that to continue having a sex life, you have to think about your own pleasure. What is driving it is the “selfishness” shared in the report. From the moment there is pleasure in making love, this person will seek to continue making love.

This is how the sexual life is self-sustaining, because envy works like a flame that needs to be fed. Do not think that there is an age for everything, otherwise it can be the definitive end of sex life. The engine of sexuality is the pleasure we have. If a woman or a man no longer has pleasure, he or she will give up sexuality.

– Is there a time when sexuality can become impossible as you get older?

For a long time it was thought that only men had sexual problems, especially with erections — that’s why Viagra was found in men — but in women it was not the same. In reality, women also have sexual problems and they are even worse at home. If they do not maintain their sexuality with age, vaginal dryness sets in. It is followed by vaginal atrophy, that is, drying and shrinking of the vaginal mucosa. The whole organ shrinks, the vagina becomes smaller and less easily accessible. During intercourse with penetration, this can cause pain or even in some cases, the vaginal walls can stick together, which can make things impossible.

Before, when there was vaginal dryness, the only real treatment was to apply hormonal treatment. However, as the latter can promote breast cancer, many women and doctors have given up on it. For a few years, there has been a vaginal laser which makes it possible to rehydrate the vagina, which has brought a real solution for some women. It is a physiological, active, non-hormonal, painless treatment for women and which allows, at the rate of one session per month for four months, to restart the process of hydration of the vagina and to make it work again as before. .