Many women face a common sexual health complaint; loss of libido. Your sex drive is obviously what gets you into the mood for sex and, without it, relationship wellness can suffer. It’s not uncommon for this symptom to affect your wellbeing as a result of menopause, but any woman of any adult age can experience a decline in libido. While no one resolution exists, certain strategies can offer significant help for this condition. The problem with this issue is that most women aren’t aware of all the factors at play in their sex drives, or the treatments that are available to help. However, while there are many medications aimed at boosting your libido, many of these can actually make the problem worse. Therefore, you need natural, at-home lifestyle changes that can get your sex drive back into gear, without putting your wellness at risk!
1. Get more sleep: As happens with many areas of your wellness; a lack of good quality sleep can make your libido worse. Poor sleep causes you to lose energy, and forces your body to ration its energy resources. This means that you need to work on getting a good night’s sleep, and the sex stuff should fall into place. Many women find that bit of gentle exercise in the evening can help prepare them for a decent slumber. Good options include yoga and tai chi, as these practises don’t exhaust your body, and provide a nice sense of relaxation for your mind. Plus, all that stretching with yoga can enhance your flexibility, which is always useful in the bedroom!
2. Reduce stress: While stress is, unfortunately, a part of modern life, that is not to say that you can lessen the impact it has on your sex drive. If daily stressors are significantly distracting you from romance, get some tools in place to help your body and mind to unwind. As we’ve already covered, getting plenty of sleep can help you to de-stress, while massage and exercise likewise have soothing qualities. You might also try upping your intake of B complex vitamins, as these powerful pills support your stress and adrenal glands. Ginseng and liquorice have the same effect as B vitamins, while eating a healthy diet with limited refined sugar helps keep the body in balance. If none of these tactics worse, and you find you’re experiencing depression, you need to communicate with your partner and your GP. Together, the three of you can find other therapies to help, and so talking about your depression is absolutely vital.
3. Hormonal therapies: As we’ve previously discussed, fatigue causes your body to ration energy, and stress can also take its toll on your body. Combined, these two factors begin to interrupt your hormones, driving down certain ones such as DHEA and testosterone. Although these hormones are really considered to be more for the guys, women also have and need DHEA and testosterone, albeit in lesser amounts. Still, replacing your too-low levels of these hormones can help to raise your libido, and you can get DHEA over-the-counter in an oral variety. For testosterone, you’ll need to see your doctor for a prescription, which often comes in the form of a cream. Your doctor might also check your hormone levels through blood, urine or saliva testing. Replacing DHEA and other hormones can have a knock-on effect in improving your sleep and mood, both of which are essential for a hot-and-heavy sex drive. You might also want to consider the replacement of estrogens and progesterone. Whilst this is not always an easy decision, bioidentical hormones do have many benefits to consider.