Everyone wants a healthy sex life, but a stalled libido can get in the way of your sexual health and even have an impact on your overall wellbeing. The underlying causes of reduced sex drive can be varied, so you don’t have any idea what’s affecting your wellness – and this can be very unnerving. Because of this, if you have a faltering libido often, you can be tempted to suffer in silence. However, a little information can go a long way toward providing a solution, and the reality is that many causes are treatable. So, what possible causes are dampening your burning passion?
1. Ageing: As you age, your sex drive is no longer critical for reproduction and – as a result – it wanes. For men, your testosterone will likely peak in your late teens, and then slowly decline at a rate of about 1% per year – although you’ll probably be in the mood for sex way into your 60s. For women, however, the balance of your hormones – progesterone, oestrogen and testosterone – can become upset more suddenly around the age of 35-40, as this marks the beginning of perimenopause (or the period of time in which your body prepares for menopause). As your body is lower in oestrogen, your vaginal tissue will become less healthy, making sex more painful. For this problem, lubricating creams or gels can help, while trying new positions is recommended if your aching joints are making sex less fun.
2. Exercise: Generally speaking, a healthy body means a healthy sex life. However, sex is a physical activity and, as such, carries certain risks. Vigorous sex can be taxing on your heart and a host of muscle groups – particularly your lower back – which can put you off having sex in the future. Plus, if you exercise often outside of the bedroom, you may be bringing aches and pains to bed that can dull your sex drive.
3. Excess weight: There’s a famous story in which rotund Irish playwright Brendan Behan reportedly turned down an equally large woman’s passionate advances because – even though he’d would have liked to accept her offer, he was ‘afraid our equators would prevent conjugation.’ However, being overweight doesn’t just make sex difficult; it can also put a serious damper on your libido. If the physical assertion involved in sex makes your heart too busy trying to push blood through pounds of excess adipose tissue, it won’t be able to deliver an adequate supply to your sexual organs, which is a key factor involved in arousal. Plus, there’s a link between excess weight and other, libido-lowering conditions, such as diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. If you are overweight, improving your diet can help with all of the above, as well as improving your body image and, as a result, your sexual confidence.
4. Tiredness: At the end of a long, busy day, you hardly feel in the mood to get active between the sheets. Tiredness takes its toll on your entire body, causing you to operate at less than 100%. Not getting enough sleep has a direct impact on your body’s production of hormones and this, in turn, influences your sex drive. Simply put; feeling sluggish doesn’t often translate into feeling sexy. If you feel tired all of the time, you may have an underlying medical condition in need of treatment. Chronic insomnia, chronic fatigue syndrome and sleep apnoea can all be as deceptive as they are debilitating, and often require medical attention. However, if you’re merely run-down, some light exercise can give you more energy, as well as avoiding drinking alcohol close to bedtime.
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