A good sex life—at any age—involves a lot more than just sex. It's also about intimacy and touch, things anyone can benefit from. Even if you have health problems or physical disabilities, you can engage in intimate acts and benefit from closeness with another person. Keep in mind that anything that affects your general health and well-being can also affect your sexual function. Sexual health can be affected by: Fleabaghas memorably put female masturbation on screen. Period. End of Sentence. – a film about women making biodegradable sanitary pads in Hapur, India – won an Oscar for Best Short Documentary, prompting the headline: Menstruation Finally Gets the Attention It Deserves at the Oscars. Society has made it acceptable for women to put male satisfaction ahead of their own,’ says Alex B Porter, author of The Cunnilinguist: How To Give And Receive Great Oral Sex. Giuliano F. and J. Allard. “Dopamine and Sexual Function,” International Journal of Impotence Research (2001) 13(Suppl 3):S18.

What sounds rote and dreary can actually be dreamy, says Michael Castleman, who recommends the strategy especially to couples in long-term relationships, who’ve passed the can’t-keep-their-hands-off-each-other phase. Your experience matters. God gave you discernment. You’re allowed to use it. When you read something or hear something, you don’t need to believe it just because it came from a Christian leader. Look for Jesus in what they are saying, and if He is not there, discard it.” you’ve ever read the popular Christian marriage books and they’ve sat wrong and you felt more hopeless afterward, like you were broken If any health issues come up for either partner, why not embark on a diet and fitness plan together? Teaming up like this and spending more time together will have the benefit of increasing intimacy and lifting mood. Let it go. As much as you can, use your age and experience to be wise and candid with yourself. Let go of your feelings of inadequacy and let yourself enjoy sex as you age. Know when to seek help

SHOP: The Best Grown-Up Crop Tops

Age-related hormonal drops for both sexes can make bodies less responsive and result in weaker pelvic floor muscles, meaning it takes longer to achieve orgasm.

IT KEEPS YOU FITMaking love a couple of times a week cuts your risk of heart disease and strokes by half, says a study from the New England Research Institution Massachusetts, in the US. ‘It improves muscle tone, flexibility and circulation, plus it raises your heart rate, which is good for you cardiovascular health,’ explains JuliePeasgood, author of The Greatest Sex Tips in the World. It is perfectly reasonable for a woman to expect her husband to live out his wedding vows. She isn’t being selfish. She isn’t failing to understand what it is to be a guy. She is standing on biblical principles.” But while you might not have to worry about unwanted pregnancy at this age, it’s vital to protect yourself against sexually transmitted diseases.Don't be shy. Hold hands and touch your partner often, and encourage them to touch you. Tell your partner what you love about them, and share your ideas about new sexual experiences you might have together.

Kruger, T.H.C. et al. “Prolactinergic and Dopaminergic Mechanisms Underlying Sexual Arousal and Orgasm In Humans,” World Journal of Urology (2005) 23:130. When over-50s magazine Saga surveyed their readers about their changing sex lives, most (around 85%) admitted they made love less frequently now than they did in their 20s and 30s. But don’t despair – the research also revealed older couples weren’t skipping sex completely. Almost half of those questioned said they did still manage sex at least once a week. More books are on the way, including Period. by broadcaster Emma Barnett, Private Parts: Or How I Learnt to Live with My Dysfunctional Uterus by Eleanor Thom, and comedian Sara Pascoe’s Sex Power Money. If any of these resound with you, please snatch up this book as fast as you can!!! Maybe you will find, like me, that you were building on a broken foundation and no amount of fixing would ever produce the result you are looking for. There’s a better way. There’s hope for something better. There’s hope for freedom and togetherness and mutuality and safety and pleasure and love where BOTH individuals matter and are allowed to have a say and be able to give willingly.

Budweiser, S. et al. “Sleep Apnea is an Independent Correlate of Erectile and Sexual Dysfunction,” Journal of Sexual Medicine (2009) 6:3147. For a number of reasons, though, many adults worry about sex in their later years, and end up turning away from sexual encounters. Some older adults feel embarrassed, either by their aging bodies or by their “performance,” while others are affected by illness or loss of a partner. Perhaps most significantly, in February, the Department for Education unveiled fresh sex education guidelines, to include lessons on FGM and sexting. So when Otis the Sexual Whizzkid labelled that diagram in seconds without breaking a sweat, I decided it might be time to do something about it. It was time to shrug off the years of ignorance and prudishness, and embark on a journey of sex education. As bodies and feelings change as you grow older, it's more important than ever to communicate your thoughts, fears, and desires with your partner. Encourage your partner to communicate fully with you, too. Speaking openly about sex may not come easily to you, but improving your communication will help both of you feel closer, and can make sex more pleasurable.

All of the reaffirmed to me how bad of a wife I was being. I questioned myself constantly if I was giving my husband enough sex. If I was pleasing him enough. If during the times I was dealing the trauma of my past and I would literally shut down during sex (in the effort of transparency, let me just say I was raised in a home that dished out every form of abuse except physical and the trauma of that lingers to this day. And yes, I've been in trauma therapy. Unfortunately, there will always be fall out in various forms from the abuse depending on what's going on in life and stored body memories and all that) if that was dishonoring to him/living in the past/not being respectful to him. Though written to women, I would recommend this book to men and women alike. If half of the North American church read this book, I think it'd benefit us all, and these (very) bad ideas might just lose the (isolated? male? unchristian?) environments that they've flourished in for so long.Biblical sexuality is worth rescueing and I am so thankful for Sheila for starting this conversation.