ArticleJournal of marriage and the family2019
Sex in Midlife: Women's Sexual Experiences in Lesbian and Straight Marriages.
Article in Journal of marriage and the family, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Enablers and Barriers to Accessing Women's Health and Wellbeing Services for Women Aged 40-65 Years: A Qualitative Study.Community health equity research & policy · 2026Article
- Changes in Older Adults' Sexual Expression: A Latent Transition Analysis.Journal of sex research · 2026Article
- The Gendered Sexual Experiences and Marital Quality of Middle-Aged Same-Sex and Different-Sex Couples.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- A Meta-Ethnography of Women's Intimate and Sexual Experiences Across the Menopause Continuum.International journal of women's health · 2025Review
- Sexual Motives, Stress, and Depressive Symptoms Among Midlife Different-Sex and Same-Sex Couples.The Gerontologist · 2023Article
- Pursuing Pleasure Despite Pain: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Black Women's Responses to Sexual Pain and Coping.Journal of sex & marital therapy · 2022Article
- Femininity Concerns and Feelings About Menstruation Cessation Among Lesbian, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Women: Implications for Menopause.Journal of women's health (2002) · 2021Article
- "Fat broken arm syndrome": Negotiating risk, stigma, and weight bias in LGBTQ healthcare.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2021Article
- Sexual- and Gender-Minority Families: A 2010 to 2020 Decade in Review.Journal of marriage and the family · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThis study examines how married straight and lesbian women understand sexual changes in midlife.
backgroundSexual satisfaction is key to marital quality, yet marital sex typically diminishes in midlife. Little is known, however, about how married straight and lesbian women make sense of midlife sexuality. Comparing the narratives of lesbian and straight women can reveal how midlife events, relational contexts, and gender norms drive women's experiences of and responses to diminishing sex.
methodInductive and deductive analyses were performed on interviews with a convenience sample of 16 straight and 16 lesbian mostly high-status married couples in Massachusetts.
resultsLesbian and straight women suggest that sexual activity and desire diminish over time due to health, aging, and caregiving events, yet lesbian women additionally emphasize the importance of weight gain, caregiving for adult parents, and shared experiences of menopause. Women further describe distress when their sex lives diverge from norms specific to marriage and their sexual identities. Moreover, women report relationship work designed to maintain or reignite sex; when compared with straight women, lesbians describe more work and a stronger sense of duty to keep sex alive and uniquely describe medical providers as unhelpful in addressing sexual challenges.
conclusionThe results suggest that relational contexts and cultural discourses shape straight and lesbian women's experiences of distress and comfort about diminishing sex in marriage.
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