Until the last quarter century, myths about the inevitability of a decline in a woman’s interest in and enjoyment of sex after menopause have been part of life and legend.
Going back to Greek mythology, we encounter the tale of the Three Fates – Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, who were responsible for weaving the threads of human destiny. Each sister played a distinct role in the life cycle, representing different stages of a woman’s existence.
Clotho, the youngest of the three, was the spinner who carefully spun the thread of life that symbolizes the woman’s phase as the life incubator. Lachesis, the middle sister, would measure the length of the thread, representing the time for fostering and caring for growing children. Lastly, Atropos, the eldest, was the cutter who held the shears that would sever that thread when a woman’s time as the bearer of a new life ended. She was depicted as an elderly woman, wise and solemn, revered and feared, for she held the power to shape the destinies of mortals.
The shears were also taken to represent the complete severance of her connection to generating life, which means that sexual interest and activity had ended for her. Ouch.
Through this myth, people came to accept the changes that come with aging as if they were inevitable. Clotho was the woman at the peak of fertility, bearing new life. In this dimension, sex was an integral and essential part of her daily life. Lachesis was a mature mother, able to engage directly in managing the results of her procreation and, at the same time, to shift her focus on sexual experience more to pure enjoyment since the burden of procreation was lifted. And in the end, Atropos was a wise old woman whose body had been transformed into an ethereal spirit divorced from physical engagement.
Stories like these from Greek mythology help shed light on how so many women have come to believe the inevitable decline in sexual pleasure as women pass into menopause and accept it as if there is no other way. After all, the myth about Atropos turned into the English word atrophy, coming from the same root as the Greek word “atrophia,” which means wasting away.
Simply put, the myth is just that.
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