The Bedroom Gap: Rewrite the Rules and Roles of Sex in Midlife -- Maria Sophocles, Hardcover

"A powerful, long-overdue exploration of the silent struggles women face in midlife around intimacy, identity, and inequality"
-- Dr. Mary Claire Haver, New York Times bestselling author The New Menopause

A roadmap for midlife women, couples, clinicians and anyone wanting to understand - and change -how we age, sexually speaking .

Sex in midlife can be a bumpy road, especially for women. Our bodies change with age, and those changes can lead to shame, confusion, and the loss of intimacy.

The Bedroom Gap shows us how society developed destined-to-fail gender roles and expectations in the bedroom and makes clear how we can level the sexual playing field between midlife men and women.

This pathbreaking yet easily accessible guide not only clarifies the physical changes of menopause and how they affect sex in midlife, and details how we can treat those changes, reframe our views on pleasure and desire, narrow the discrepancy in sexual functioning between middle-aged men and women, and optimize sexual pleasure after 40.

Author: Maria Sophocles
Publisher: Balance
Published: 02/10/2026
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780306837401

About the Author

Maria Sophocles, MD FACOG, MSCP, IF. is an internationally renowned gynecologist, advocate and thought leader in menopause and female sexual function. A frequent commentator on Sirius XM's Doctor Radio and TED speaker, Maria lives in Princeton, New Jersey, where she fought for statewide legislation to secure access to contraception in 2023 and heads a progressive gynecological clinic that serves over 30,000 women.