“The night comes early for a woman”: Menopause and sexual activities among urban older Yoruba men and women in Ibadan, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

This article explores older peoples’ perceptions of menopause and sexuality in old age. The research was exploratory, consisting of 12 vignette-based focus group discussions and 18 face-to-face semistructured interviews among older Yoruba men and women (60+). Findings revealed menopause as a biopsychosocial marker of aging that provides gendered spaces for women to abstain from or suppress their sexual desires and avoid a folk pregnancy- oyun iju(folk fibroid). Older men construe menopause and sexual refusals from their wives as opportunities for extramarital relations. Thus, both older men and women have differentiated perceptions and dispositions toward menopause, which have implications for their sexual health and well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• Aging
• menopause
• older people
• Nigeria
• sexuality

Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the older persons who participated in this research for sharing their views and experiences with us. The research would have been impossible without their voluntary participation. The findings were from the first author’s PhD research in Health Sociology under the supervision of Professor Leah Gilbert(second author) at the Department of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Vignette A

Baba Alamu is between 60 and 70 years old. He has three wives, a concubine (mistress), and 12 children. Recently, Baba Alamu married a fourth wife, who is much younger than the other wives are. Six months after marrying the fourth wife, Baba Alamu contracted a sexually transmitted infection.

Vignette B

Iya Asake is between 60 and 70 years old. She has a concubine and six children and lives with her husband. Iya Asake engages in sexual relations with her husband and the concubine. Six months after Iya Asake got a new concubine, she contracted a sexually transmitted infection.

Additional information

Funding

This research was partially funded by a PhD Fellowship award provided by the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA). CARTA has been funded by the Wellcome Trust (UK) (grant: 087547/Z/08/Z), the Department for International Development under the Development Partnerships in Higher Education (DelPHE), the Carnegie Corporation of New York (grant: B 8606), the Ford Foundation (grant: 1100-0399), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (grant: 51228).