White T, Laganá L
Department of Pan African Studies, California State University Northridge, Northridge, California, U.S.A.
Department of Clinical Psychology, California State University Northridge, Northridge, California, U.S.A.
OA Womens Health. 2013;1(1). doi: 10.13172/2053-0501-1-1-788.
The study of older women's sexual health has been very limited. Most of the available research in this area is on Caucasian older women; a few studies have targeted the sexuality of older Black women. There could be several reasons for this and for the common reluctance of these women to disclose information on their sexual health. The aim of this review was to discuss factors influencing older black women's sexual functioning and their disclosure of sexual concerns.
In this article, we first briefly reviewed the literature on sexual health among older women, then covered historical and social issues that are likely to influence older Black women's sexuality as well as their common reluctance to disclose intimate details of their lives to their health providers. This information could be important for researchers as well as healthcare professionals. Specific groups of clinicians potentially interested in this discussion are sexual health professionals, couples' counsellors as well as other professionals attempting to address older patients' problems such as relationship, intimacy and sex challenges. Without knowledge of critical issues such as the potentially traumatizing historical events and the multiple societal pressures that are likely to impact these women's sexuality and disclosure of sexual concerns, it would be difficult for researchers and clinicians to get an accurate account of older Black women's sexual needs.
Older Black women's sexuality is a very delicate and complex topic. We encourage interested professionals to make an effort to become more aware of what is potentially holding back older Black women from disclosing their sexual concerns to them, and have provided some historical information and research suggestions to guide professionals interested in investigating older African American women's sexuality in a more tactful and culturally-sensitive way.
对老年女性性健康的研究非常有限。该领域现有的大多数研究针对的是白人老年女性；少数研究关注的是老年黑人女性的性行为。出现这种情况以及这些女性普遍不愿透露性健康信息可能有多种原因。本综述的目的是探讨影响老年黑人女性性功能及其性问题披露的因素。
在本文中，我们首先简要回顾了关于老年女性性健康的文献，然后阐述了可能影响老年黑人女性性行为的历史和社会问题，以及她们普遍不愿向医疗服务提供者透露生活私密细节的情况。这些信息对研究人员和医疗保健专业人员可能都很重要。可能对这一讨论感兴趣的特定临床医生群体包括性健康专业人员、夫妻顾问以及其他试图解决老年患者诸如人际关系、亲密关系和性方面挑战等问题的专业人员。如果不了解诸如可能造成创伤的历史事件以及可能影响这些女性性行为和性问题披露的多种社会压力等关键问题，研究人员和临床医生就很难准确了解老年黑人女性的性需求。
老年黑人女性的性行为是一个非常微妙和复杂的话题。我们鼓励感兴趣的专业人员努力更加了解可能阻碍老年黑人女性向他们披露性问题的因素，并提供了一些历史信息和研究建议，以指导有兴趣以更巧妙和文化敏感的方式调查老年非裔美国女性性行为的专业人员。
