Menopause makes grannies rape targets

Bonte Seepi | Wednesday August 17, 2016 15:32

Of recent there has been a rise in rape cases involving young men raping women old enough to be their grandmothers in the country.

According to the health workers, such cases are escalating due to the belief that older women’s sexual reproductive parts are dry, therefore stay a long time without sexual activity.

When addressing dikgosi recently in Palapye, Gosata Gaealafswe from the Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) Department in the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that when women reach the stage of menopause, they lose interest in sex.

 “Young men rape elderly women because they believe their womanhoods are now dry. That is because during menopause women experience vaginal dryness and painful sex. Hence the loss of interest in having intercourse. 

Unfortunately young men will take advantage of the situation and rape our grandmothers instead of protecting them and respecting them as their grandparents,” said Gaealafswe.

She, however, said such cases of rape are some of the major causes of the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country. 

She said it is sad to see how young people are misbehaving and disrespecting their elders.

She said women reach menopause between the ages of 45 and 60, but added that sometimes it can happen earlier than that.

Furthermore, the health worker stated that these days the reason they see young women reaching menopause early is attributed to some illnesses and other reasons.

“These days it is different.  Sometimes women can reach menopause early because of their behaviour when it comes to sexual activities.  Today’s youth start having sexual intercourse earlier and that can be one of the reasons why they reach menopause early.  Sometimes it just happens earlier, unexpectedly.”

“Youth also reach the stage early because they are inactive.  Some do not work, don’t eat properly and don’t even exercise.  In the past people were hard workers, women took care of all household chores while men went to the cattlepost and worked hard at the mines,” she said. She said men also have their time of losing interest in sexual activity known as andropause.  She said that unlike women, men find this hard to accept when it happens. 

That is why they then make indecent proposals to young girls with the belief that they can re-ignite their interest in sex. Gaealafswe, however, discouraged the behaviour saying it is better to accept this change because having sex with young girls can be very dangerous because they might meet girls who are infected with sexually transmitted infections (STI).  She said sooner or later everyone will reach that stage.

She said parents must learn about the challenges that come along with such stages and share their experiences with the family so that when it happens, people who are around can understand what they are going through.

Dikgosi expressed concern over the behaviour of today’s youth.  Kgosi Michael Maforaga outlined cars as one of the things that destroy young people.

He said during their time they walked to the cattleposts and rarely used cars, saying today people use cars wherever they go.

Kgosi Ngala Mabole also said in the past they did not reach these stages early because they worked hard and men stayed at the cattlepost and met their wives once in a while.  He added that they also used traditional herbs.