Research released this week shows support for the theory of sexual fluidity, that a person’s sexual orientation can fluctuate and change throughout their lifetime.
A report presented at the annual meeting of the North American Menopause Society last week wanted to increase awareness of sexual fluidity, particularly in regard to healthcare.
Arguing that sexual fluidity is more common in women than men, the presenters wanted to reach out to women feeling first-time same-gender attraction later in life and tell them not alone.
Related: When do children develop their gender identity? How kids are more fluid than you think
They also wanted to help doctors understand, so they wouldn’t assume women had only had partners of the same gender in their lives.
“We know of a number of women who have been in perfectly happy marriages with men, they raised a family, and at some point—in their 40s or so—they find themselves unexpectedly falling in love with a woman, without ever having thought that was possible,” said Kingsberg.
Related: Comment – It turns out male sexuality is just as fluid as female sexuality
Kingsberg argues there’s evolutionary evidence for this – that when women go through menopause they no longer have a biological imperative to mate with a male, and so their body becomes attuned to same-sex attraction.
Dr Lisa Diamond, one of the study’s researchers, also believes her theory has scientific support.
Over time, sexual fluidity can be influenced by “a complicated dynamic between hormonal changes, physical experiences, and sexual desires,” she told the Daily Mail.
Cynthia Nixon, one of the examples of sexual fluidity used by the study (Photo by Clemens Bilan/Getty Images for Glashuette Original)
In 2008, Diamond released a study in which she had followed 79 lesbian, bisexual and ‘unlabelled’ women for a decade and found that two-thirds of them changed the label they identified with during that time period.
They particularly wanted to emphasise awareness of sexual fluidity for doctors, so that they could support “later-in-life-lesbians.”
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