EMBARGOED UNTIL 11 FEBRUARY 2005

Improving communication about sexual health during the menopause

On Friday 11 February at 10.30am, the British Menopause Society and the Royal Society of Medicine Press will launch a new publication, Sexual Health and the Menopause at the RSM’s headquarters at 1 Wimpole Street in London.

The book, edited by John M Tomlinson, Margaret Rees and Tony Mander, provides up-to-date information on sexual health issues involving both women and men during the peri-menopause. Aimed at General Practitioners and other healthcare professionals, the contributors bring together information throughout many specialties to offer the first comprehensive, cross-disciplinary publication to address the previously sensitive subject of sexual health during this time in a woman’s life.
The book is designed to outline the various relevant issues and enhance communication between doctors and their patients, therefore increasing the quality and comfort of care.

Keeping sex alive: maintaining sexual health and desire in the later years
The contributors emphasise the importance of maintaining a healthy sex life as women enter the menopause. Suggestions for opening lines of communication between patients and their partners are discussed as well as advice in dealing with the natural hormonal changes that occur during the menopause.

Sexual problems and dysfunction
There are a number of things that can go wrong during the menopause, including a drop in sexual desire, psychological discomfort and pain disorders such as dyspareunia. Two contributors discuss the types of problems and identify some causes and ways to manage within the primary care setting.

Sex therapy: how the patient can learn to help herself
Another chapter talks about psychosexual therapy and self-help options to empower women to seek alternative ways to deal with their sexual problems. Methods include talking with a sex therapist and encouraging women to educate themselves about issues they may be unsure of. The author also suggests a number of sex aids that may be of use in improving an ailing sex life.

Drug treatments
Pharmacotherapy treatments have shown varied results in completed studies. Androgen replacement therapies, such as testosterone therapy and tibolone steroid agents, have shown positive results in clinical trials, the authors write. Vaginal oestrogens, a non-testosterone-based treatment is an effective for vaginal dryness and dyspareunia and cause no adverse endometrial effects. Sildenafil, a drug commonly used to treat erectile dysfunction, is undergoing research to treat female sexual arousal disorder but results are inconclusive. Bupropion, an antidepressant, have shown promising results in small, limited trials.

Risk of HIV and other STI infection during and after the menopause
The rates of STI and HIV infection are on the rise in adults over the age of 45, with the most ‘rapidly growing group of patients’ acquiring infection through heterosexual contact. In spite of this, they are ‘universally omitted from prevention programmes’ and, although patients in this age group are physiologically predisposed to STI infection and diagnostic techniques are often muddled by the presence of other age-related conditions and natural changes in the body, menopausal women have ‘largely been ignored within the field of sexual health.’ For further information on this chapter, please email the address below.

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Note to editors:
About the BMS
The British Menopause Society (BMS) is a registered charity aimed at the medical profession and is open to healthcare professionals specialising in the menopause, including consultants, trainee gynaecologists, GPs and nursing professionals. BMS aims to increase the awareness of post-menopausal healthcare issues and promote optimal management through its conferences, road shows and publications.