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Regain Your Sex Life

© Gretchen Malik

According to a NIH-sponsored survey published in the February 1999 Journal of the American Medical Association, 43 percent of women report recognizable sexual dysfunction. These problems range from not being able to have orgasms to having no sexual desire at all. In fact, 35 percent of the estimated 40 to 50 million women who have sexual dysfunction have no or low sexual desire. This is known as hypoactive sex drive, or HSD for short. By definition, women with HSD lack sexual fantasies, suddenly find sex uninteresting, and rarely masturbate. While women with HSD may not feel deprived without sex, a defining feature is that lack of libido causes distress. The good news is that libido can be restored. With men, HSD is usually related to an erection problem. But a woman's lack of sexual desire is often more complex, and directly intertwined with many aspects of her life. Emerging research is revealing that libido is neither all in your head nor all in your body.

So how do you go about remedying HSD? Start by asking yourself what symptoms you have related to fantasies, arousal, vaginal dryness, genital sensation, and orgasm. When did the libido problems begin? Were these problems sudden or gradual? What else was going on in your life when your interest in sex took a nosedive?

Here are the leading libido killers:

1. Post-childbirth and breastfeeding. After childbirth, a woman is exhausted and sleep-deprived. Her pelvic nerves and muscles may also have been damaged during delivery, lowering genital sensitivity. Breastfeeding lowers levels of estradial, the hormone responsible for keeping the urogenital tract lubricated and supple. And it also raises the prolactin hormone, which suppresses sexual desire and lowers testosterone. If you are breastfeeding for one year, not having sex can become a way of life.

2. The onset of menopause. The output of estradial is reduced with natural or surgical menopause and testosterone production drops. This may trigger a sudden dip in sex drive, loss of pubic hair, diminished sensitivity in the clitoris and nipples and a weakened ability to climax.

3. Antidepressants and other drugs. Low libido, and impaired orgasm, is a notorious side effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, (SSRIs), most notably Prozac or Paxil, two of the most commonly prescribed drugs to treat depression. Other culprits include birth control pills, blood-pressure lowering drugs, and in some cases, estrogen replacement.

4. Stress. Juggling job, childcare and marital problems can overload the adrenal hormones, deplete energy, jump start an over-secretion of prolactin and may lead to depression, a major contributor to HSD.

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