Nobody tells us exactly what to expect as grow older. With aging, comes several changes to your lady parts.
With aging comes a lot changes to your body like wrinkles, a decreased metabolism, and memory loss.
Your vagina is one of your body parts that doesn’t deal too well with old age. A lot of changes occur down there, starting in your 40s.
While most of the aging-related differences you’ll notice in your lady parts (like an increase in dryness and yeast infections) are just simply annoying, others can be serious.
Below are some things you can expect to happen to your vagina as you grow older.
1. Your uterus can fall into your vagina
Your uterus (or womb) is normally held in place inside your pelvis with various muscles, tissue, and ligaments. As you age, your organs can shift positions. Pregnancy, childbirth or extra weight can stretch and weaken muscles that support your pelvic organs. Also, as a woman ages and with a natural loss of the hormone estrogen, her uterus can drop into the vaginal canal, causing the condition known as a prolapsed uterus. For women with mild prolapse, Kegel exercises can be helpful. As far as treatments go, that depends on the health of the patient—but one option is having a supportive pessary (a removable device) inserted into the vagina to keep things in place.
2. Your vagina starts to look older
As you age, your skin loses elasticity, and wrinkles become more pronounced. Something similar happens to your vagina. This is as a result of the gradual loss of estrogen that comes with perimenopause and menopause. Estrogen helps to keep skin plump and more elastic. Consequently, hormonal decreases as a result of aging mean a loss in elasticity of the vagina. The vaginal walls thin out and can become dry and inflamed. Kegel exercises probably won’t help, but any kind of activity that simulates and invigorates the area might, including sexual arousal.
3. Your uterus and the entrance to your vagina can shrink
In response to dropping estrogen levels, the uterus can actually change size. The vaginal opening can shrink, and the length of the vagina can shrink. All of the tissue tends to constrict, particularly if it isn’t being used and this narrowing can lead to irritation, dryness, and sometimes, inflammation of the vaginal wall, a condition called atrophic vaginitis. Left untreated, atrophic vaginitis can cause bleeding and painful sex and pelvic exams. Maintaining a certain level of sexual activity can offset some narrowing. Estrogen treatments can also help.
READ ALSO: The Right Way To Take Care Of Your Vagina
4. You may not be able to control your bladder
As time goes on, musculature and ligaments supporting the pelvic floor start to relax. In some cases, the urethra may actually move in relation to the bladder, which can cause leaking.
5. You may experience more urinary tract infection
Aging could mean frequent urinary tract infection. The flora of the vagina changes without estrogen and the tissue around the urethra is thinner, making you prone to UTIs. An unrecognized or untreated UTI can progress to a kidney infection and then develop into systemic infection.
Local estrogen therapy can thwart the onset of these diseases, since it helps restore your flora. Moisturizing, lubricating, and sex are also helpful, as they keep vaginal tissue supple and less disposed to small tears.
6. The hair down there
Perhaps the most noticeable change in your vaginal area is the greying, thinning, and loss of pubic hair. On the bright side, this means you’ll need to shave less as you get older. On the not-so-bright side, hair begins to appear elsewhere. Some women start to grow hair on their face or places they don’t want. Fortunately, there are ways to combat this, like creams and laser treatments, which are discreet and fairly inexpensive.
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