When we say “love your body,” we don’t just mean being happy with how it looks (though we want you to do that too), we mean, well, looooooooove your body. Give it what makes it happy and healthy, including the great physical pleasures of masturbation and/or sex.

Because masturbation and sex during menopauseare healthy. Sexual pleasure strengthens our bodies and brains, our spirits, and our relationships. But as a culture, we stigmatize pleasure that isn’t young, glamorous, Hollywood sex. We’re not comfortable having conversations about pleasure, real people pleasure, which leaves a lot of us ignorant about sexuality and our own bodies.

Lioness Vibrator: Learn your body, inside and out

Lioness is out to change all that – the ignorance, the stigma, and the embarrassment, especially when it comes to female bodies. (At genneve, we couldn’t agree more with getting rid of stigma and myths around women’s bodies.)

“I wanted to make something that could be interesting and useful
not just for millennials who live on the coasts, but also for someone in her 40s in Nebraska.”

In other words, Liz Klinger, Co-founder and CEO of Lioness, wanted a way for “ordinary” women to learn about and enjoy their bodies.

Do you deal with painful sex? Find out more about your options to reclaim intimacy.

After quitting her job at an investment bank to sell sex toys around the United States (as you do), Liz quickly discovered a few things:

• People, especially women, are super curious about sex, sexuality, and toys.
• People, especially women, often don’t talk about self pleasure with their doctors, their partners, or their friends.
• If you’re demonstrating products at a sex toy party, they’ll talk to you.

Liz Klinger of Lioness

“I was showing sex toys at a bridal shower, and the bride-to-be literally pulled me into a closet to tell me she’d never had an orgasm, didn’t think she was capable of having an orgasm, and was worried it would destroy her marriage,” Liz tells me. “It reinforced my discovery that people have questions about their own bodies, but no one to ask.”

Four years later, she’s head of the pride at Lioness with an innovative smart vibrator that allows women to, quite literally, get in touch with their bodies.

“When we told our beta testers they could see their own orgasms, they couldn’t wait.”

“We started with a vibrator that had sensors that allowed the device to adapt to the user and her responses. But it turns out, most of us have one or two ‘settings’ that we default to, so once the sensors learned that, there wasn’t much else for them to do. It was more of a ‘nifty’ thing rather than something that benefited people in a real way.”

“But when we told our beta testers they could see their own orgasms, they couldn’t wait. They saw the information we got from the sensors, and their eyes lit up. They were really curious and excited to know what was going on in there. And that lit us up – we could create a device that not only provided pleasure but also helped women learn the best ways to please themselves.”

More testing followed, along with a number of iterations on the device, before they had the vibrator they wanted: the Lioness.

the Lioness

“You use it like any vibrator, but then you connect to our app on your smartphone, and you see your own sexual response: the tech and sensors inside Lioness show you your patterns of arousal and orgasm. Everyone is different, but now you can actually see what works for you. We hear about women printing out their charts to share with partners to show them, ‘see, this really excited me.’ Over time, the picture becomes more and more complete – you can see what time of day works best, even on average how long it takes to get to orgasm, which can be really important information to share with a partner.”

In the Lioness app, you can even tag each session to indicate external factors that may have an impact: did you sleep well the night before? Where were you in your menstrual cycle? Were you feeling stressed or relaxed? The more you know …

If you need assistance reigniting that sexual fire, a menopause-certified health coach can be helpful. Book 30 minutes for your personal consultation with a health coach.

Oh, high-tech toys are for millennials

Now, hang on a minute, missy: the Lioness has a ton to offer the over-40s.

Not only does Lioness vibrator offer the healthy stimulation and vibration recommended by Dr. Madeleine Castellanos and our pelvic floor specialists, it also helps women explore their sexuality in an intensely personal way, alone or with a partner.

Wonder where your libido went? Lioness can help with that, Liz says: “It could be that your body responds to different stimuli now, and the tried-and-true system developed over your 20-year relationship needs a refresher!”

They’ve even taken into account how women shop for toys (or how they want to). Liz says they want women to enjoy the whole experience of purchasing and receiving the vibrator. “I’ve had women tell me they don’t want to go to a sex shop and have a 20-something recommend a toy. These are mature women taking control of their sexuality – we want to give them an experience that’s as cool and classy as they are.”

Find out more about the Lioness and join the “pride” on their website. 

Interested in learning more about changes in libido in midlife? Make a telemedicine appointment to speak with one of our GYN providers.

A limp libido is a common complaint among women in midlife – what’s worked for you to reclaim your desire? Share with us by emailing me at info@gennev.com. I’ll share your ideas, but never your name. You can also share on Gennev’s Facebook page or in Midlife & Menopause Solutions, Gennev’s closed Facebook group.