The European Court of Human Rights rules that sex is important for women of all ages. The court upheld a lower court settlement ordering a hospital to compensate an older woman for a botched medical procedure that made it painful and almost impossible for her to have sex.
Although the soaring sales of erectile dysfunction drugs, such as Viagra, Levitra and Cialis, have shown without a doubt that sex is important to men of all ages — including those well over 50, it took a court in France to do the same for women.
After a botched surgery in 1995 that left her incontinent, depressed, barely able to sit or walk, and in such pain that she couldn’t have sex, then-50-year-old Maria Ivone Carvalho Pinto de Sousa Morais sued the hospital that performed the operation.
Hospital Ordered to Pay
She won, and the court ordered the hospital to pay her the equivalent of $93,000 for physical and mental suffering plus another $19,000+ for a maid to help with daily chores. But a year later, Portugal’s Supreme Administrative Court made a very sexist decision: it reduced her compensation by one-third. Why?
The court said:
- Morais “probably only needed to take care of her husband,” since her children were grown.
- That sex was probably less important to Morais because she was 50 and had two children.
The Reversal
Morais, now 72, took her case to the European Court of Human Rights in France.
The court agreed with Morais that the reasoning for decreasing the payment was flawed and biased. The 5-2 majority ruling stated, in part: “The question at issue here is not consideration of age or sex as such, but rather the assumption that sexuality is not as important for a 50-year-old woman and mother of two children as for someone of a younger age. That assumption reflects a traditional idea of female sexuality as being essentially linked to childbearing purposes and thus ignores its physical and psychological relevance for the self-fulfillment of women as people.”
Morais’ lawyer plans to reopen the lawsuit and head back to Portugal for greater damages.
The Moral of the Story
Don’t assume that women over 50 don’t see sex as an important physical and psychological component of their lives!
If you’re suffering from low testosterone, disinterest in sex, or erectile dysfunction, talk to your doctor about your options. Something as simple as testosterone injections or erectile dysfunction drugs, such as Viagra, Cialis or Levitra, may be all it takes to keep you both satisfied with your sex life!
Ordering your ED drugs from a longtime online facilitator such as eDrugstore.com can often save you both time and money. Based in Tempe, Arizona, eDrugstore carries a full line of ED medications, including both brand-name and generic products. To learn more, visit its Erectile Dysfunction page.
We specialize in providing our over 1,000,000 customers with relevant product and condition information created by our professional editorial staff which includes our team of medical writers, medical practitioners, and health educators. eDrugStore.com Staff on Facebook