Menopause and Sexual Health: Embracing Change Across the Life Course

WAS Digital
Oct 13
3 min read

Updated: Oct 27

Mature woman smiling confidently outdoors, representing menopause awareness and sexual health. — Photo by Nguyễn Tiến Thịnh for Pexels

By Prof. Faysal El Kak, President of the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS)

Every October, the world observes World Menopause Month and World Menopause Day (October 18) - a time to bring visibility to an experience that affects more than 1.2 billion women globally.

Menopause is a natural biological process marking the end of menstrual cycles, usually between the ages of 45 and 55. It involves significant hormonal, physical, emotional, and social changes - but it is not a disease or end of living. When supported with accurate information and compassionate care, it can be a stage of renewed vitality and self-knowledge.

What Sexual Health Really Means

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and WAS, Sexual health is a state of physical, emotional, mental, and social well-being in relation to sexuality, not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction, or infirmity.

This definition underscores that sexual health is lifelong. It includes the capacity to experience pleasure and intimacy safely and with autonomy, throughout all stages of life - including menopause and beyond.

Bridging the Gaps in Menopause Care

Across many regions, women and people experiencing menopause encounter:

Limited access to trained healthcare providers
Lack of skilled HCPs who can provide holistic care to women transitioning through menopause
Social stigma that discourages discussion of sexuality after midlife
A lack of integration between menopause management and sexual-health services

As a clinician, I have seen how menopause is at times gaslighted, too often medicalized, narrowly focused only on symptom relief or hormonal change - instead of being addressed as part of a person’s overall sexual and reproductive health life course.

The truth is, menopause care is not only about hormones. It is about listening to each person’s experience, understanding the interaction of body, mind, relationships, and culture, and offering holistic support.

Healthcare systems should make space for that complexity by:

Integrating menopause and midlife sexuality into sexual and reproductive health curricula and continuing education for providers.
Ensuring access to evidence-based information on both hormonal and non-hormonal options for managing symptoms such as vaginal dryness, dyspareunia, or changes in libido.
Supporting open conversations between patients and partners about pleasure, intimacy, and evolving sexual identities.
Including menopause care in universal health coverage frameworks - particularly in low- and middle-income countries where services are limited.

These actions align with the Porto Proclamation’s call for health equity, justice, and inclusion across the life course. Learn more about the Porto Proclamation on Sexual Health, Rights, and Justice

The Broader Public Health Lens

Menopause also intersects with non-communicable diseases, mental health, and gender equity.

Supporting sexual wellbeing during menopause not only enhances quality of life, reduces cardiovascular and metabolic risks, and enhances psychological wellbeing.

Yet globally, the menopause care gap reflects deep inequalities - in research funding, access to therapies, and recognition of women’s sexual rights.

Bringing menopause into mainstream sexual and reproductive health agendas is therefore a matter of justice as much as care.

A Call to Action for Professionals

As professionals committed to sexual health, we can lead this change. We can normalize conversations about menopause in our clinics, classrooms, programs, and communities; we can train the next generation of providers to see menopause not as an end, but as a beginning of new sexual possibilities.

When we do so, we move closer to the vision affirmed at the World Sexual Health Assembly - that sexual health, rights, justice, and pleasure are for everyone, everywhere, every time.

Sexual Rights Do Not Expire

This professional leadership must go hand in hand with a continued commitment to sexual rights across the lifespan. Menopause is also a reminder to uphold the WAS Declaration on Sexual Rights (2014).

These rights - including the right to information, education, healthcare, and pleasure - apply to everyone, at every age. Sexual health and pleasure are human rights, not privileges of youth.

A Global Commitment to Lifelong Sexual Well-Being

The World Association for Sexual Health promotes a holistic, evidence-based, and justice-driven approach to sexual health across the life course. By addressing menopause as a vital part of this continuum, we move closer to realizing a world where:

All people have access to quality sexual-health care
Aging bodies are respected and celebrated
Sexual wellbeing is supported - physically, emotionally, and socially

Menopause is universal, but experiences differ by culture, socioeconomic status, and context. Listening to these diverse voices, in Beirut, Brisbane, Nairobi, or New York, helps us ensure that sexual health, rights, justice, and pleasure truly are for everyone, everywhere, every time.