ArticleRoyal Society open science2020
Sexual frequency is associated with age of natural menopause: results from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.
Article in Royal Society open science, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 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.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association between reproductive history and menopausal timing: exploring rural-urban differences in a cross-sectional survey.BMC women's health · 2026Article
- Endocrine disrupting chemicals and female sexual health: An emerging research priority.Environmental research · 2025Article
- Pornography Use and Coitus Interruptus: Is There a Link?Journal of health communication · 2025Article
- Association between Healthy Eating Index-2015 total and component food scores with reproductive lifespan among postmenopausal women: a population-based study from NHANES 2005-2016.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Association between the atherogenic index of plasma and bone mineral density among adult women: NHANES (2011-2018).Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Observational
- Menopausal status, age and management among women living with HIV in the UK.HIV medicine · 2021Article
- The World Association for Sexual Health's Declaration on Sexual Pleasure: A Technical Guide.International journal of sexual health : official journal of the World Association for Sexual Health · 2021Article
- The Health Benefits of Sexual Expression.International journal of sexual health : official journal of the World Association for Sexual Health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
It is often observed that married women have a later age of natural menopause (ANM) than unmarried women; however, the reason for this association is unknown. We test an original hypothesis that sexual frequency acts as a bio-behavioural mediator between marital status and ANM. We hypothesize that there is a trade-off between continued ovulation and menopause based on the woman's chances of becoming pregnant. If a woman is sexually inactive, then pregnancy is impossible, and continued investment in ovulation would not be adaptive. In addition, we test an existing hypothesis that the observed relationship is because of the exposure to male pheromones. Data from 2936 women were drawn from 11 waves of the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation, which is a longitudinal study conducted in the United States. Using time-varying Cox regression, we found no evidence for the pheromone hypothesis. However, we did observe that women who reported to have sex weekly during the study period were 28% less likely to experience menopause than women who had sex less than monthly. This is an indication that ANM may be somewhat facultative in response to the likelihood of pregnancy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.