Menopausal women’s sense of sexual attractiveness

Objective: To study the impact of menopause on sexual attractiveness in relation to such psychological variables as extraversion and self-esteem Material and method: One hundred and ten women participated in the study They were divided into two groups: premenopausal (31 subjects aged 35–44) and menopausal (79 subjects aged 45–55) Self-esteem scale by Rosenberg, NEO-FFI by Costa and McCrae and Sexual attractiveness questionnaire (designed for this study) were administered In statistical analyses 2, correlation coefficient and multiple regression were used Results: The findings indicate that the distribution of high, medium and low sexual attractiveness scores is similar in the pre- and menopausal groups Sexual attractiveness was significantly correlated with high self-esteem and high extraversion in menopausal women In the younger group only the correlation of sexual attractiveness and self-esteem was significant Extraversion was not related to sexual attractiveness in premenopausal women Age, menopausal status and hormone replacement therapy were not related to sexual attractiveness In a multiple regression analysis high self-esteem was the only significant predictor of sexual attractiveness Conclusions: Women with high self-esteem tend to feel sexually attractive irrespectively of their menopausal status