A sexualidade no envelhecimento feminino: uma compreensão fenomenológica

Abstract

Sexuality in female aging is rarely addressed in the social imagination, where elderly women are depicted as caregivers of the family, and also in the academic realm, where most research focuses on the biological aspects of aging, portraying it as synonymous with decline. In contrast to these understandings, we view sexuality as an integral part of female aging, and aging itself as a phenomenon within existence. The objective of this study is to understand how elderly women experience sexuality. This is a phenomenological-hermeneutic Heideggerian study. The research instrument was the narrative interview, conducted with three elderly women, recorded in an affection diary, and interpreted hermeneutically through the interpretive circle. This research allowed us to understand sexuality as an existential aspect and, by acknowledging female aging in its existential dimension beyond the biological, it expanded the understanding of this phase of life, strengthening health care for these women