a new study suggests that women who have sex frequently are at a lower risk of entering into early menopause, raising the possibility that a variety of lifestyle factors can impact when menopause starts.
the research,
published in
royal society open science,
followed 3,000 women for almost 10 years, finding that women who had sex weekly were 28 per cent less likely to have experienced menopause at any given age. women who had sex monthly were found to be 19 per cent less likely to have experienced menopause early.
the authors defined having sexual activity in the study as sexual intercourse, oral sex, sexual touching and caressing or self-stimulation.
megan arnot, a phd candidate at ucl and the first author on the paper said that the study suggests if a woman is not having sex and there is no chance of the woman being pregnant, then the body ‘chooses’ not to invest in ovulation.
“there may be a biological energetic trade-off between investing energy into ovulation and investing elsewhere, such as keeping active or looking after grandchildren,” she said.
the research is based on data collected 2,936 women in the usa’s study of women’s health across the nation (swan) in the 1990s. at the first interview, the women were 45 years old. non-hispanic caucasian women represented 48 per cent of the sample, and a majority of the women were educated to above a high school level.