Problems

A. Sex functions usually allow the full range of sexual arousal, performance and orgasm within the physical limitations of the individuals and the mutual consent of the couple.

B. Sexual dysfunction include erectile difficulties in men,and anorgasmia in women, whose medical histories document sufficient health, but expected performance is disappointing.

C. Sexual deviations (exhibitionism, pedophilia, fetishism, some types of rape, etc) are more compulsive disorders.

"Myths and prejudice colour our views of sexuality and ageing. This review seeks to de-mystify what for many remains a taboo subject. It demonstrates that for many older women sexual experience is a key component of a full and healthy life. The review provides an overview of research connecting major life events with sexual health and is intended as a reference for health professionals and the interested public."

* A broad definition of sexuality is essential when considering the sexual needs of older women. Simply counting the numbers of sexual encounters presents a totally false picture of older womenıs experience of sex. The review paper reveals the importance of sensual and tactile experiences to women, especially older women.

* Most research charts the frequency of sexual contacts and relatively little research explores the meaning of sex for older women. This bias may contribute to what has been described as the masculinisation of sex.

Jack Dominion (Christian Theologian)
The sexual dimension of the marital relationship

It has already been mentioned that a greater awareness of sexuality and the realization of its potential is an essential part of the current evolution. The contributors to this change are the sexologists and psychologists who have emphasized the significance of sexuality and the advent of widespread and effective contraception. The arrival of widely used contraception has implications which go well beyond the ability to control conception. For thousands of years sexuality has been linked with pro-creation. Now the overwhelming majority of sexual acts are consciously and deliberately not linked with new life. Some have been frightened that this will release an erotic, pleasure-seeking extravaganza. It is true that some freeing of sexuality has taken place, but rampant permissiveness has not occurred and sexual intercourse is still primarily confined within marriage or in loving and exclusive relationships, mostly the former. The question that arises is the meaning of sexuality when it is no longer essentially linked with procreation. What is its purpose then?

Sexual intercourse is essentially a body language. It involves the union of bodies through which a sense of oneness is achieved. The relaxed ease, comprehensive interaction of body and mind are what couples seek. They want to feel relaxed to touch each other, to receive from touch trust and security as they felt when hugged by parents, and at the same time to experience erotic pleasure which gradually becomes a consummated genital union reaching a climax of exquisite pleasure and relief of tension. This forms the background, the bodily connection, through which the couple are talking to each other. Those who are afraid that sex will become simply a sensation of pleasure fail to see that couples who are in love use this pleasure to reach and address each other as persons. What are they saying to each other? What is the text of the sexual language?

First of all successful sexual intercourse elicits a deep sense of gratitude. The couple appreciate what they have received and, with or without words, they say 'thank you' to each other. This thanksgiving may be expressed with a mere grunt or can expand into a rich epilogue but often it is contained in a saturated silence. Thus at the very heart of sexual intercourse there is felt and expressed gratitude. This gratitude is linked with the desire for repetition. The couple. want to repeat the joy the same night, the following day, but in any case, soon. Implicit in this desire is the hope that their partner shares this feeling and wishes to respond in a similar manner. This hope is not merely a matter of wishing to have more pleasure but includes the awareness that through this pleasure they are giving the whole of themselves. Giving however is only one half of the exchange, the other half is receiving. Some sexual difficulties are focused precisely on this ability to give and to receive. Men and women who find it difficult to give of themselves because of the fear of being rebuffed, rejected, overwhelmed, taken over, hold themselves back. Others find it so difficult to believe that anyone wants them, that they cannot accept what is offered to them. But for the overwhelming majority who can mutually donate themselves and receive in return, the union is a rich accomplishment of mutual enhancement.

This mutual enhancement has specific healing qualities. It can extinguish hurt and pain. No couple can escape misunderstanding, conflict, quarrelling and hurt. These quarrels lead rapidly to apology and forgiveness but often a certain amount of hurt remains and sexual intercourse has the capacity of removing it. Thus another feature of love-making is its ability to bring about reconciliation. All these various existential meanings are possible because the couple are attracted to each other on a sexual basis. Sexual intercourse is the most powerful and economic means through which the spouses' sexuality is reinforced. The man who makes effective love to his wife not only gives her pleasure but through the pleasure confirms that he enjoys her body and her femininity, in other words he confirms repeatedly her sexual identity. In a similar manner she does the same thing for him.

But sexual identity is not the whole person. Through the erotic encounter the husband is saying to his wife that he recognizes, wants and appreciates her as a person and similarly she reciprocates in her feelings. Thus coitus is a most powerful source of recurrent affirmation of each other not only as a sexual being but as a person. Both spouses need this and when it is absent there is a sense of marked frustration. Women in particular complain that husbands, when they fail to surround genital penetration with adequate preparation for love-making, are treating them as sexual objects and not as persons. Both sexes need to feel that they are persons first, before they become sexual beings, and if this does not occur they feel reduced in their meaning. Thus in the depths of sexual intercourse are to be found the characteristics of thanksgiving, hope, reconciliation, sexual and personal affirmation. Love-making encompasses all these possibilities.

Given this richness of the sexual act, it can easily be seen that it is a powerful reinforcer of the sustaining, healing and growth processes. In addition however it has its own unique meaning. Every time successful intercourse takes place it gives life to the couple. Life and love are linked and are both contained in this activity. Birth regulation has thus helped us to see the rich potential of this act which is laden with meaning, and the union it brings about is a prototype of all forms of unions from the simplest to the divine.

Sexual intercourse has the capacity to give life on each and every occasion, and we are just beginning to realize that this is its most profound purpose. Such a realization is still limited but it is part of the authentic deepening of our understanding of its meaning. Given this richness which can only be fully realized in a continuous, personal, exclusive relationship the traditional condemnations against fornication and adultery remain meaningful in a new context. The primary reason for these condemnations is no longer the risk of procreation outside the framework of two supportive parents, nor is it connected with enjoying pleasure without responsibility. The grounds of condemnation are simply that sexual intercourse has such a rich potential to activate human love that only a continuous and exclusive relationship such as marriage can do full justice to it. It is not marriage that makes coitus morally right when it was previously wrong. Coitus belongs to marriage, for it is only in that relationship that its full purpose can be realized.

But what about procreation? There is no doubt at all that children remain important and precious, important if the world is to continue, precious because they are a profound expression of the love of the parents and they elicit further love in their upbringing. The rise of sexual significance does not mean the demise of the procreative aspect of intercourse. It does mean however that everything we know about the education of children indicates that they need stable and loving parents. Sexual intercourse contributes substantially to marital happiness hence its increasing appreciation. In brief, therefore, sexual intercourse is a life-giving experience. Ninety-nine per cent of the time its life-giving properties are to be found in the interaction of the couple and on a few occasions in the creation of new life. These possibilities of sexual intercourse justify the increasing preoccupation of Western societies with raising the level of sexual practice, because ultimately it is a major contribution to love.