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Reflections on Identity

Midlife Sex Is the Best Sex

Overcoming shame and guilt to embrace sexuality in midlife

Laura Friedman Williams

Photo: Monika Kozub / Unsplash

One of the biggest surprises to me in the annals of “I didn’t see that coming” is how fiercely I own and celebrate my sexuality in midlife.

I am not alone. According to HealthDay News, women in midlife feel more confident and empowered when it comes to sex and thus report higher levels of satisfaction. Gynecologist Susan Hardwick-Smith writes in her book Sexually Woke that up to one in five women in midlife report feeling fulfilled sexually, a number that may seem discouraging but that she says negates the common trope about how our changing hormones and bodies make sexual satisfaction impossible after we hit a certain age.

My sex life at fifty-one is the best it’s ever been, mostly because I have been able to discard the negative emotions I associated with sex from the very first time I became sexually active.

My best friend and I were hellbent on losing our virginity the summer before we started our senior year of high school. We can’t be virgins anymore, it’s embarrassing, we said as we watched other girls parade around with a swagger that made us feel we would forever be confined to pastel childhood bedrooms with Raggedy Ann dolls.

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Laura Friedman Williams
Laura Friedman Williams

Written by Laura Friedman Williams

Author of AVAILABLE: A Very Honest Account of Life After Divorce (Boro/HarperUK June ‘21; Harper360 May ‘21). Mom of three, diehard New Yorker.

Responses (33)

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If you think midlife is good, oh my gawd, wait until you retire … now admittedly, having good genes and being in above average health is a major contributor to this … but sex in my seventies (I am 71) is the best sex that I have had to date. I have…

Great article, I had a similar experience at every step of the way! I wish our messages to young women and women as we age were different. And this article is part of that new messaging!

Thank you for sharing your story and unpacking this journey that so many of us FINALLY ENJOYING SEX in our mid-life probably never really considered the full “why” of it until reading this. I myself, always thought it was bc of a newfound life and…