No Menopause At 59 Thanks To Great Sex!

Vicky Rhodes is convinced a healthy love life has helped her delay ‘the change’

- Sherron Mayes

On nights out with my girlfriends, there comes a point in the evening where I consciously keep quiet: that moment, after a couple of glasses, when they animatedly discuss hot flushes, sleeplessness, lethargy and night sweats. I can’t join in with all this menopause-related chatter because, despite being 59, I’m yet to go through the dreaded change.

I still have periods and have never experienced a hot flush, never mind any other symptom of hormonal change. It has long puzzled me why I’ve seemingly dodged the bullet. So, recent research, which said regular sex might help defer the menopause, was a revelation.

At last, I know what’s going on, because the years when I might have expected to go through the menopause were taken up with a passionate affair.

For 10 years, I was intimate almost daily with a handsome man a decade my junior. I can only guess that’s what kept my hormones seemingly unchanged – and the menopause at bay.

The theory, scientists say, is if you have a full sexual life, you’re keeping your body and hormones active, so you stay fertile longer. Scientists postulated that if a woman is not having sex and there is no chance of pregnancy, the body ‘chooses’ to stop investing energy into ovulation, and enters menopause.

The menopause is diagnosed when you haven’t had a period for 12 months, and usually occurs between 45 and 55, with the average age being 51.

Back in 2009, when I first met Jack, I was 49 and he was 39. Although I was yet to have any symptoms, I was sure the menopause was firmly on the horizon. We met in a country clothing store he owned in Epsom, near a friend I was visiting.