You do it on a Sunday afternoon and it does not go in any column. Ask what it was for and out comes: taking the edge off, helping me sleep, keeping things working down there. Four answers, and every one of them turns it into maintenance on a machine somebody else drives.
The standard research instrument does not measure one desire. It measures three: for your partner, for someone who is not your partner, and solitary. Everybody who has ever asked about yours was asking about the first one. And in a study of 3,816 adults aged 60 to 75, women's past-month masturbation ran 40 percent in Norway and 27 percent in Portugal. Same bodies. The variable is permission.
Inside: why your body and your mind disagree about arousal, the sound you stopped making decades ago, and two practices that have nothing to do with him.
Press play. Make some noise.
What if the reason you've gone from feeling desirable to feeling broken has nothing to do with your age or hormones?
What if it comes down to a hidden cycle no one talks about - one that keeps women after 50 stuck, waiting for desire that never seems to return?
That's exactly why I created **The Desire Reset Guide**.
It reveals the real reason you feel broken - 3 simple practices over 3 days to reconnect with your desire. 👉 juliemerrimanphd.com/desire
And don't miss👉 Episode 29: Your Body Isn't Broken, The Truth About Desire After 50.
**What would you ask me if no one would ever know it was you?**
Now you can. I answer one question every Friday. 👉juliemerrimanphd.com/ask
New episodes Wednesdays & Fridays, 5am CST
This podcast is for women after 50 navigating low desire, sexual disconnection, and body changes who want nervous-system-informed insight into libido, aliveness, intimacy, and embodied pleasure so they can move from tamed to alive and unapologetically hungry.
**No part of this content may be used for AI or machine learning training.**
