What Causes Penetration Difficulties During Intercourse Despite Being Lubricated In An Elderly?

Posted on Fri, 13 Oct 2017

Question: I am a male and have recently connected up with an old female friend. We have both lost our spouses and have been dating for over 6 mo. We recently tried to have sex and found that I could not obtain penetration to my friend. She is 66 and has not had sex for over 12 years, do you have any guesses as to what might be wrong? Lubrication is not a problem it is more internal.

Answered by Dr. Lekshmi Rita Venugopal (42 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Possible Vaginal atrophy due to decreased estrogen

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
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Trouble penetration is likely due to lack of estrogen and vaginal dryness given her age. Lack of estrogen can cause difficulty relaxing the vagina. Sometimes limited foreplay can also result in trouble penetration. Vaginal dryness can contribute to pain, which in turn causes vaginal muscle spasm. Lack of lubrication is not only important externally. Lubrication is important to reduce pain associated with penetration, which is important to relax vaginal muscles.
I recommend that you use lubrication if needed. There are also vaginal estrogen creams that your partner can use, to help the vaginal muscles to be supple.
Please be advised to follow up with a gynecologist to undergo pelvic examination and receive prescription for vaginal estrogen cream.

Hope this answers your question
Please let me know if you need further clarifications
Regards
Dr.Lekshmi

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T