Overhead Notes for Today's Lecture
Unit 3d: Older women's issues
Physical Development and Aging
1. Aging results from physical and environmental factors
2. Cardiovascular, muscular, skeletal and reproductive systems age differently for men and women.
3. Changes in the heart
4. Men maintain greater muscle strength as they age than women
5. After menopause women loose bone mass much faster than men
6. Menopause is accompanied by sharp decreases in the levels of estrogen and progesterone.
Sexuality
1. Sexuality in one's later years can be just as gratifying as one's younger
years
2. A number of myths and stereotypes exist about sexuality in later life
3. Older women grew up in sexually restrictive times
Benefits of Sexual Activity Later in Life
1. Physical Benefits
2. Psychological and Emotional Benefits
3. Some women find sex more fulfilling and attitudes towards sex more open later on in life.
Sexual Behavior in the Elderly
1. Interest in sexual behavior remains fairly high throughout adult life, declining only gradually in the later years
2. Some elderly want to be more sexually active than they currently are
Factors Affecting Sexual Behavior
1. Physical Factors
2. Psychosocial Factors
Enhancing Sexuality Later in Life
1. Sexual behavior can be rewarding for adults if people realize that sexual expression among older adults in normal and healthy
2. Sexual counseling can help remove inhibitions restricting and only person's behavior
3. Elderly people living in supervised living arrangements may need opportunities to have private time together for intimate contact
4. Health care providers should provide educational material about normal sexual/body changes during this time.
5. Older women need to feel it is permissible to express their sexuality in what ever way is comfortable w/them
AIDS
1. Every sexually active woman is at risk for STD and HIV
2. As women who are older, are seen as less sexually active they may not be given information concerning the transmission of HIV
3. AIDS incidence is increasing more rapidly among women than men
4. Women age 40 and older make up 1/3 of AIDS cases amongst females
5. Over 3100 cases have been diagnosed in ages 60 years and older, and the number of new cases has increased nearly by a factor of 10
6. Mid-80's the cause for older women getting the disease was blood transfusions, now 70% of these cases are due to heterosexual transmittion
7. 1st factor putting older women at risk is the increased thinning of vaginal tissues
8. 2nd factor is decreased lubrication
9. These items increase the likelihood of small tears and HIV entering in through the blood stream
10. Older women with HIV may have a more difficult time obtaining a correct diagnosis and treatment
Childbearing in Later Years
1. 1996, Arcelie Keh (63 years) gave birth to a healthy baby girl through a donor egg and hormones
2. Most fertility clinics set age limit of 50-55 years of age
3. Keh insisted her age was 10 year younger
4. Recent progress in ovarian tissue transplants may make the incidence of late years child bearing more of a common occurrence
5. Controversial, should postmenopausal women be denied the help in getting pregnant?-arguments have been given by the establishment
6. Marcia Angell (M.D and executive editor of the New England Journal of Medicine) believes
Romantic Partnerships: Lesbian Partnerships among older women
Aging lesbians must grapple with agism, sexism, and the stigma associated with being homosexual
However, lesbian couples report feeling less lonely
Loss of a Lesbian Partner
Single Women
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