A New Take on Safe Sex

Safe sex takes on a whole new meaning when you are post-menopausal with the same partner and a new hip. It’s no longer about timing or protection, but all about position.

A few PT visits ago, my husband suggested that I ask Christina what would be safe. She is about 30 and quite attractive. Her first comment was “Men!” Then she said, “They actually teach us what to say in PT school.” She gave me a detailed explanation of what would be safe positions and why, emphasizing the important thing is not to let the angle of my right hip get to more than 90 degrees and not to cross my right leg over my left. What you are trying to avoid is dislocation of the new hip. As it turns out there are at least a couple of options.

This whole thing of returning to sex reminds me of sex after childbirth. After you have given birth, ripped and/or had an episiotomy, about the last thing in the world you want to think about is starting the process all over again. At least that’s your initial reaction. As those initial memories fade, there is once again a mutual desire.

Initially after my hip replacement as I stared at my lifeless right leg that I couldn’t even drag across the bed, sex was simply not on my radar screen. I had much more immediate goals like getting out of bed to go to sit on the porta-potty. But eventually life started returning to normal.

Google will tell you that sex can be resumed within 4-6 weeks of a hip replacement. At first I would have said, ask me in about a year. But guess what, we made good on that statistic. As it turns out, I wasn’t even thinking about my new hip. There was no pain, just gentleness and a lot of love and it was all very safe!