“I’m in control: I’m not stumbling in the dark anymore”: Midlife women’s experiences of successfully negotiating safer sex with new partners

ABSTRACT

The rates of STIs in women over 45 years have been steadily increasing in Australia and other Western countries. Traditionally sexual health and STI prevention and research has positioned young people as the priority population; to date, insufficient attention has been paid to the sexual health of women over 45 years. Using a strengths-based approach, the objective of this study was to explore the factors and mechanisms that enable Australian women aged 45 to 64 years to successfully negotiate safer sex practices in new relationships. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was employed for an in-depth exploratory study of a sample of eight women. Three broad themes emerged: being informed, being prepared, and being empowered. These findings provide a valuable insight into how we can initiate change and support safer sex practices for this target group.

KEYWORDS:

• Mid-life women
• safer sex
• sexually transmitted infections

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the women who gave their time to talk to us.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by an internal grant from School of Health & Human Services at Central Queensland University.