CONTRACEPTIVE CARE OF THE OLDER PATIENT – FREEDOM TO EXPRESS SEXUALITY | Weight loss and diet plan for a healthy lifestyle.

Sometimes the fact that children are now grown-up, becoming independent and often leaving home, can give the woman a sense of freedom, and she sees an opportunity to regain her sexuality. Her method of contraception may be a hindrance now that she and her husband have more time to themselves; the sheath or the cap, previously well tolerated, now become a bit of a chore. One sometimes picks up a kind of cheerfulness and a sense that sexuality is going to be even better now. If the doctor can accept such feelings while at the same time giving positive messages about the combined oral contraceptive, the progestogen-only Pill or the IUCD in a woman of this age it can be very helpful.

For many couples in their early 40s, sterilization can be the ideal method as they may have come naturally and comfortably to accept that their child-rearing days are over. In the later 40s it can be seen as rather an extreme step when the woman’s menopause is near and she is in any case at a less fertile stage of her life.

However, the sense of sexual freedom conferred by the end of childbearing can rebound on the couple, causing a change in the balance of the relationship, at a time when that relationship is in any case having to adapt to changing life situations. Some of the difficulties that may arise are explored in the next sections.