How to delay menopause... have more sex

WOMEN who have sex more frequently may have a better chance of delaying their menopause, scientists say.

Those who make love at least once a week are almost 30 per cent less likely to go through the menopause in any given year than women who indulge in sexual activity less than once a month, their study found.

This may be because the body reacts to a reduced chance of pregnancy in those having sex less often and stops ovulating. The average woman in the UK goes through the menopause at the age of 51, but studies have suggested several factors can delay this.

Giving up cigarettes is one strategy, while research last year suggested eating more oily fish and less rice and pasta could help.

Researchers, influenced by studies showing married women tend to go through menopause later, wanted to see if frequency of lovemaking made a difference.

They followed almost 3,000 women with an average age of 45, noting how often they had sex or were involved in sexual activity and when they went through the menopause.

Over the next decade, almost half went through the menopause, at an average age of 52.

Those who made love at least once a week were 28 per cent less likely to enter menopause in a given year compared with women who did so less than once a month.

Women who had sex at least once a month were 19 per cent less likely to go through the menopause.

The study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, took into account whether women smoked, the age at which they started puberty, their weight and other factors that can affect the menopause.

Dr Megan Arnot, who led the University College London research, said: ‘The findings of our study suggest that if a woman is not having sex, and there is no chance of pregnancy, the body “chooses” not to invest in ovulation, as it would be pointless.’

Experts say ovulation takes up a lot of energy and impairs the immune system, making women more at risk of illness during their fertile periods.

From an evolutionary perspective, if they are not having sex and will not get pregnant, there is no point to this.

Instead women may go through the menopause to redirect their energy away from childbearing to helping with their grandchildren.

In our hunter-gatherer days, that would have better helped the group survive, and the theory has been called the ‘grandmother hypothesis’.

Professor Ruth Mace, lead author of the study, said: ‘The menopause is, of course, an inevitability for women, and there is no behavioural intervention that will prevent reproductive cessation. Nonetheless, these results are an initial indication that menopause timing may be adaptive in response to the likelihood of becoming pregnant.’

‘Link to chance of pregnancy’