Aging and SRH changes in men & women

Age-related physiological changes do not render a meaningful sexual relationship impossible or even necessarily difficult. In men, greater physical stimulation is required to attain and maintain erections, and orgasms are less intense. In women, menopause terminates fertility and produces changes due to estrogen deficiency. The extent to which aging affects sexual function depends largely on psychological, pharmacological, and illness-related factors.

In women, vaginal walls become thinner, dryer, less elastic, and possibly irritated. Sometimes sex becomes painful due to these vaginal changes. The risk for vaginal yeast infections increases. The external genital tissue decreases and can become irritated.

Unlike women, men do not experience a major, rapid (over several months) change in fertility as they age (like menopause). Aging changes in the male reproductive system occur primarily in the testes.

In middle and old age, the reproductive systems undergo significant changes: a gradual decline in fertility and fluctuations in the production of sex hormones, the latter triggering anatomical and physiological changes in distant organs and tissues.