Aging on women's sexuality - Essay Example

The following piece of writing is based on the article ‘The impact of aging on sexual function in women and their partners’. The author of this article is Sheryl A. Kinsberg. In this article the writer discusses how different physiological, psychological and social factors that are important in the sexual functioning of a woman are altered by age and how this alteration affects her sexuality. The writer also discusses how the changing sexuality of a woman affects her partner and vice versa.

At the end of the article, the writer discusses the role of a healthcare provider in situations where an elderly patient comes with a problem of sexuality. This essay is a response to this article and discusses why a certain issue brought up by the writer in the article is of particular interest to me and how this information can be of use to me in my personal life. The particular issue that I find most interesting is the effect of psychosocial factors that affect sexuality in women and how they are affected by age.

The impact of this information on my personal life is multi-faceted as I can adjust to the changes that will occur in my intimate relationships with time as well as understand what elderly people in my circle are going through right now. It also pushes me into understanding the patient in the light of her ethnicity and culture and develops a better understanding of the psychological component of her problem. After a thorough reading of the article, I feel that the area that grabs my greatest interest is the analysis of psychosocial factors that affect female sexuality.

The writer uses several psychological theories to explain the changes that occur in sexuality when its psychosocial component is altered by age. Using the self-perception theory, the writer explains how older women may feel asexual because their partners show a lot more interest in sexual activity than them while in reality, interest in sexual activity varies from person to person and a person cannot be considered to be sexually dysfunctional as long as he/she enjoys sexual intercourse. Similarly the writer uses the over-justification hypothesis to explain how older people may relate sex to external benefits and decrease their interest in the act itself.

This is further explained by the writer using the cognitive dissonance theory. According to this theory, if a person stops relating the enjoyment of intercourse to the enjoyment of external benefit derived from it, he/she may actually enjoy the act itself. The writer concludes this section that psychosocial studies need to be conducted in the light of the culture and ethnicity of the patient for an accurate assessment of the problem. The reason why I chose this issue is that it is the psychosocial well-being that is affected most due to sexual problems particularly in older women as they may feel insufficient, worthless or guilty due to not being able to match the performance of their partners during sexual intercourse.

If these psychosocial factors are studied in depth, it is possible to alter them by counseling the patient and saving her time and money. While medications and different treatment modalities can provide relief to several patients with sexual issues, eventually it is the psychological benefits that the patient is seeking. If a large part of the treatment is simply an understanding of these factors and putting them in correct order, not only can patients avoid drugs and discomfort but also adjust to their increasing age.

Hence, they may start to see their increasing age as a transition rather than pathology. This understanding has to be coupled by the understanding of the patient’s cultural background. This may be unique for most patients and the alterations in lifestyle and thought process that are suggested to them may vary accordingly. Thus treatment may be several times more effective. This aspect of sexual problems in older women is of great importance to a healthcare provider. The information in this article about the psychosocial fact