El secreto mejor guardado: la sexualidad de las mujeres mayores

Abstract

This article focuses on women’s sexuality during the ageing process. It reviews the main epistemological tendencies which claim to explain the features of sexuality in old age as well as any changes throughout the life cycle. It examines the system of beliefs that define the understanding of older women’s sexuality in sociocultural terms. Through the account of any positive and negative aspects which may appear in the experience of their sexuality, the article analices any difficulties relating to desire, as well as the features of medicalization of health and women’s bodies. The combination of personal, social and cultural elements –in a longlived society where older women mainly live on their own– requires a redefinition of the understanding of older women’s sexuality in terms of a multifactorial experience wherein the fact of having a partner or not will determine their sexual practices. There is also need to deconstruct the elements which until now have shaped the idea of sexuality.