hormones Tag

How Does Sex Drive Change as You Age?

It’s no secret that as you age, sex can start to look different from how it did when you were younger. This is a combination of many different factors, from the shifting mental, emotional, and social influences on your life to physical and chemical changes in your body. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing– it’s natural for your sex drive to change and slow down as you get older, and you can still have a healthy sex life no matter your age. It’s good to know what changes to expect, however, and that if you’re struggling with changes to your sex drive as you age, there are routes you can take to help combat the less-than-enjoyable effects. Here’s a quick breakdown of what the evolution of an adult’s sex drive typically looks like. Remember, everyone is different, so these are not hard and fast milestones so much as generalizations.

20s and 30s

You might assume that both men and women have their highest libidos around the same age, but that’s surprisingly not true! In men, testosterone is high in the 20s, and sex drive is usually high along with it. 

 

For women, libido is a little lower during the 20s but tends to go up in the 30s. Sex drive is a very complicated subject, and scientists haven’t conclusively proven why this happens, but it’s generally assumed that there’s a correlation between the increase of sex drive and the decrease in fertility that happens in the late 20s to 30s. High fertility in your 20s might lead to an evolutionary instinct to be more selective about sex.

Pregnancy

Most women who have children do so sometime in their 20s and 30s, and this has some serious effects of sex drive, not just during the pregnancy, but afterwards as well. It’s common to experience a boost in libido during the second trimester and be disinterested in sex at other times, but this isn’t the case for everyone. Some women experience an unusually high sex drive during pregnancy, or an unusually low one, or they might be anxious about whether it’s safe (the answer is typically yes, but double check with your doctor if you’re nervous). The stress of raising children can also lead to a decrease in sex drive after the baby arrives.

40s

Around the age of 35, testosterone levels in men start to drop, which can cause a decrease in sex drive as well. These changing hormone levels continue into the 40s, and the decrease might be fairly gradual for some men or faster for others. 

 

Women, on the other hand, tend to have fairly high sex drives and active sex lives in their 40s. Some studies indicate that women around this age are more likely to have sex more often and earlier on in a relationship, as well as having more intense fantasies. 

50s

For men, sex drive around this age is usually significantly lower than it was earlier in life, although there’s no reason for this to get in the way of a healthy sex life. Erectile dysfunction does become more common in men as they get older, but this actually has less to do with age and more to do with other health problems that become common with age, like obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and high cholesterol. Medications for these conditions and others can also lead to erectile dysfunction, and you should discuss it with your doctor if it’s becoming a problem.

 

For women, lowered stress levels from environmental factors like the kids moving out or less worry around getting pregnant might lead to an increased interest in sex, but the onset of menopause can throw a bit of a wrench in the works with hormonoal changes leading to things like vaginal dryness, lowered libido, and mood changes or sleep problems. These are also things you should discuss with your doctor.

 

What Can I Do?

If you’re struggling with the effects of aging on your sex life, hormone replacement therapy might be a great option for you! At Renewed Vitality, our bioidentical hormones are more efficient and have less adverse effects than synthetic hormones, and giving yourself a boost of testosterone or estrogen as needed can help to get you feeling more normal and get your sex life back on track. If you’re interested in this treatment, please contact us here to learn more!

Everybody starts the new year with the best of intentions. There’s something so exciting about a completely blank slate, knowing that this next year of your life can be anything, but sadly, keeping New Year’s resolutions is rarely as simple as perseverance and willpower. There are a lot of factors that can make it difficult to stick to your goals for the year, whether you’re hoping to get in shape, get more organized, quit a bad habit, or even just have a happier year than you’ve had in a while. However, if you can address the external factors that are holding you back from achieving your goals, you might find that suddenly everything, not just your New Year’s resolutions, becomes easier. Here are some common reasons that New Year’s resolutions fail, and what you can do to ensure that you don’t fall victim to them.

Your Goal Was Not Specific Enough

When setting a goal for the year, vagueness is never going to be your friend. Not having a clear and direct path to take will make it difficult for you to get started in the first place, meaning you’ll essentially have failed before you begin. Alternatively, even if you do make significant progress towards a goal, if you haven’t set yourself a benchmark of success, you’ll never feel that you’ve made enough progress, and you won’t be satisfied with your own hard work. Setting very clear and concrete goals is the way to go with New Year’s resolutions, so for example, don’t set a goal of just “lose weight,” instead set a goal to “lose 20 pounds by June.” Instead of “get organized,” set a goal of “set up a filing system for my important documents and donate half of what’s in my closet.” Having these definitive end goals to work towards will make a huge difference!

You Have No Support System or Accountability

Reaching a goal is not easy, and reaching a goal alone is next to impossible. If you’re trying to charge bravely ahead into your New Year’s resolutions with no one in your corner to back you up, it’s going to be way more difficult than it would be if you had a support system in place. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to have someone working towards the same goal as you, just that you need a person or group who can celebrate your successes with you and encourage you when you’re struggling. However, if you can work towards the same goal with another person, that’s great too! Having other people who are going to be able to hold you accountable is incredibly important for New Year’s resolutions.

You Didn’t Celebrate Small Successes

The value of recognizing smaller milestones on your way to achieving your larger goal is frequently overlooked and can lead to you being discouraged about the process. If you set out to lose twenty pounds this year, for example, you might think it’s a waste of time to do something nice for yourself to celebrate when you lose five or ten pounds, but recognizing your own small successes and helping keep yourself motivated is more important than you might think. If you don’t allow yourself to appreciate how far you’ve come before you’ve reached your final goal, it’s easy to forget that you’re putting in a lot of hard work to do something good for yourself and deserve a little celebration along the way. Set yourself some milestones that you think are good places on your journey for a quick victory lap, and then do something fun when you reach them, like dinner with friends, a trip to the spa, or buying yourself a small treat.

Your Hormones Were Unbalanced

There are many other physical or mental reasons that you might have trouble sticking with a New Year’s resolution, such as high levels of stress, poor sleep, low mood, and more. Surprisingly, a lot of these challenges can actually come back to the same root cause: your hormones might be out of balance. Nearly every function in the body relies on your hormones, and if they aren’t present in the levels that they need to be, this can result in the kind of symptoms that make keeping New Year’s resolutions feel impossible, such as mood swings and irritability, not getting enough sleep, brain fog or impulsivity, and even the inability to shed stubborn pounds. 

Getting your hormones balanced is one of the best things you can do for your New Year’s resolutions, and also for your overall well-being this year. With hormone imbalances as a likely root for many mental and physical issues you may be facing, coming into Renewed Vitality for testing and treatment might just be the missing piece you needed to start feeling better. Contact us to schedule a consultation today, and see how rebalancing your hormones could change your life.

The holidays are a time full of fun food and drink, and celebrating with a glass of champagne or a few cocktails is all part of the fun of this special time of year. However, now that January has arrived and brought around New Year’s resolutions, it’s common for people to step back and take a look at what they’ve been putting into their body over the past few weeks. While there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a few drinks, many people find that they’ve overindulged during the holidays and feel that it would be beneficial to cut back. That’s where the idea of a dry January comes in. 

Dry January involves completely avoiding alcohol for an entire month. Unsurprisingly, between the holidays and the stress of the ongoing pandemic, many people are feeling like they might have been drinking a bit too much lately and are considering cutting back. Having a dry January can have a lot of benefits on your physical and mental health, so if you’re taking part in this 31-day challenge, here are some of the perks that you can expect to see!

Weight Loss or Decreased Bloating 

If you’re a regular drinker, once you cut out alcohol you might notice the effects on your physique. Alcoholic beverages are liquid calories, especially carbohydrate-heavy beers or sugary cocktails. Additionally, like all high-calorie drinks, alcohol adds to your calorie intake without keeping you full, which raises your intake even further since you’ll still need to eat. Alcohol also forces your body to retain water, so even if you don’t actually shed any pounds during your dry January, you might find that you look slimmer or more toned thanks to decreased puffiness and bloating.

Better Hormone Function

Hormones are your body’s chemical messengers, and alcohol can impair the function of the glands that release them. Because hormones control just about everything in your body, this means that habitual drinking can have widespread effects on everything from your blood sugar to your sleep to your cortisol levels. If you’re a regular drinker, you might not even notice how much your alcohol intake is affecting you until you do something like a dry January. As the month goes on, you’ll probably notice that you just feel better, and can’t really put your finger on what specifically improved. In reality, it’s probably your hormone function!

Stronger Immune System

While research on this subject is limited, there is evidence to suggest that drinking alcohol, especially binge drinking, can suppress your immune system. Alcohol abuse is associated with a higher risk for infectious diseases due to its effects on your immune cells. Especially now during the pandemic, maintaining a healthy immune response is on a lot of people’s minds, and while cutting out alcohol is certainly not a replacement for proper self-protection against Covid-19 and other winter diseases like the flu, it will certainly do your immune system some good.

Improved Relationship with Alcohol

You might think that your relationship with alcohol is perfectly fine and you’re not dependent on it at all, but taking a month off for a dry January might give you a completely different perspective on how drinking fits into your life. You may find that you mindlessly drink more out of habit than anything else, or that the nightly cocktail or glass of wine you usually reach for to relax isn’t actually necessary for you to unwind after a long day. On top of that, taking a break from drinking will alter your alcohol tolerance, so that going forward, when you indulge on a special occasion, you won’t need to drink as much to feel the effects.

More Money for Other Things

Let’s face it: alcohol is expensive. When it’s a habitual expense that’s so ingrained into your regular budget, it’s easier to forget about it, but the more you drink, the more money you’re dropping at bars and restaurants and on trips to the liquor store. Taking a month off from booze might have some effects on your bank account that you’ll be pretty happy about. You may find at the end of the month that you like having the extra cash too much to return to drinking the same amount! Whether you’re tucking the extra money away in a savings account for a rainy day or spending it on a new and exciting hobby, you’re sure to find uses for it that are just as good (if not better) than spending it on alcohol.

Whether you’re looking to improve your physical health or your mental health, taking a dry January is sure to give you the boost you’re looking for. And if you’re late to the party this month, take a dry February! The hashtag might not be as popular, but you’ll still reap the benefits of reassessing your relationship with alcohol and prioritizing your own wellbeing. 

Your thyroid is a small gland at the front of your neck that produces a lot of your body’s hormones. When your thyroid, for one reason or another, doesn’t produce hormones correctly, you either have hypothyroidism, which is when hormone levels are too low, or hyperthyroidism, when they’re too high. Issues with the thyroid can affect people of all ages and can seriously influence your health across the board, but a lot of the time these conditions aren’t easy to catch early on because their symptoms can be subtle, and you might think that they don’t mean anything or that they have another cause. All health issues are best caught early on, including thyroid problems, so if you’re experiencing any of these symptoms and other explanations aren’t adding up, it’s possible that there’s something going on with your thyroid.

Digestive Problems

A lot of symptoms of thyroid problems can present on opposite ends of a spectrum depending on whether you’re dealing with hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism, and digestion is definitely one of them. With hyperthyroidism, you may have very loose stools, and with hypothyroidism, you may find yourself frequently constipated. These issues can of course have many other causes, but if you’re experiencing other signs of thyroid dysfunction, and especially if these digestive problems are unusual for you, it’s important not to dismiss them. 

Mood Problems

Higher or lower levels of hormones than what your body needs can lead to your moods changing in ways that are difficult to handle, causing you to potentially struggle with anger or low moods when you didn’t previously. If anxiety, depression, or anger issues aren’t things you typically struggle with and now you’re experiencing them for seemingly no reason, your thyroid might be to blame.

Unexpected Changes in Weight

This is a big one that you should never ignore if it happens to you. If you notice a big change in your weight suddenly or unexpectedly, it’s a sign that something is going on. This can mean weight gain but also weight loss, and although you may be pleased to find yourself mysteriously shedding pounds, unexplained weight loss is as much of a health red flag as unexplained weight gain is, and both should be discussed with your doctor if they happen to you.

Hair Loss

If you find yourself losing more hair than usual in the shower or when you brush it, or if your hair is just looking really thin and you’re finding balding spots, a thyroid issue might be the culprit. As with many warning signs of thyroid problems, this once can have some other causes. If you’re a man and baldness runs in your family, for example, then thinning hair might not surprise you, or if you’re under a serious amount of stress in your life, you might find your hair starting to fall out in noticeable amounts, but if you notice your hair thinning along with other signs of thyroid issues, you should discuss it with your doctor.

Changes in How You Experience Temperature

This sign can be subtle and difficult to notice, but if you find yourself feeling much hotter or colder than normal, or having less tolerance to hot and cold weather, it can indicate that your thyroid isn’t functioning properly. This one mostly comes down to your personal baseline. Some people just run hot or cold! But if you suddenly want to keep your coat and gloves on inside the house all the time and can’t figure out why, or you’re red-faced and sweaty on a day where the heat normally wouldn’t have bothered you as much, it’s not something to just sweep aside. 

Hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism are treatable, but ignoring the signs of these conditions can have serious effects on your health and your life, so if you notice symptoms such as these that are unusual and not easily explained by something else, don’t ignore them. Getting tested for thyroid problems is simple and can help you get the treatment you need. If you live in the Berks County area and you suspect there may be something wrong with your thyroid, contact Renewed Vitality. We are the premier facility for hormone replacement therapy in the area, and we are ready to help you.

Every woman knows to expect menopause as she ages. The average age to experience it is 51 for women in the United States, but any time between ages 45 to 55 is considered within the normal range. Menopause before age 45 is considered early, and before age 40 is premature. 

So, how do you know if you’re in premature menopause? For starters, there is a difference between menopause and perimenopause, which is the process of heading into menopause itself. When you’ve gone more than twelve months without a period, you’ve entered menopause, but prior to this as your ovulation slows, you’ll be in perimenopause and begin experiencing the symptoms that you always hear people talking about– hot flashes and chills, mood changes, sleep problems, and of course, irregular periods. A changing period is the main sign of menopause, and while there are many reasons to have irregular or missing periods, you should always discuss it with your doctor. If you’re presenting other symptoms and not within the typical age range, they may diagnose you with premature menopause. There are many reasons that this might happen to you, and they will help you to determine the cause and cope with the changes. Here are some of the reasons you might begin menopause prematurely.

Previous Illnesses

If you’ve undergone chemotherapy, had your ovaries removed, or had any other treatment or procedure that would damage your estrogen production, it may lead to premature menopause. However, damaged or missing ovaries are not the only potential cause, and you can still experience premature menopause if your ovaries are intact. 

Genetics

It is likely that there is a genetic component to when you will naturally begin menopause. If other explanations don’t fit, this may be what it comes down to. If your mother experienced menopause early or prematurely, it’s possible that you will as well.

Lifestyle

There are some habits that you might’ve had (or might still have) in previous years that can affect your reproductive health, with smoking being a major one. Long-term or regular smoking has been proven to have a correlation to earlier menopause than that seen in women who don’t smoke. Other lifestyle choices that may contribute are vegetarianism, lack of exercise, lack of sun exposure, and low BMI. 

Chromosomal Defects

There are several chromosomal abnormalities that can lead to premature menopause. Most of them do this by affecting the function of the ovaries. Turner syndrome, pure gonadal dysgenesis, and Fragile X syndrome are all possible causes. If you or any family members have premature menopause and you suspect that one of these conditions might be the cause, it’s important to discuss genetic testing with your doctor.

Autoimmune Disease

Autoimmune diseases can cause a whole host of health issues, including premature menopause. When inflammation caused by these diseases affects the ovaries, their function is altered or stopped. Rheumatoid arthritis and thyroid problems are potential autoimmune diseases that may be the cause of your premature menopause.

Epilepsy

Epilepsy can sometimes cause the ovaries to fail prematurely, and resultantly lead to early or premature menopause in about 14% of women with the disease. 

Depending on the cause of your premature menopause, hormone therapy might be a good treatment option for you to help lessen the symptoms. Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, like the kind offered at Renewed Vitality, can improve your quality of life during perimenopause and menopause. Most of the adverse symptoms of menopause stem from a change in your body’s estrogen levels, and by adding in estrogen that is no longer being produced, some of those symptoms can be eased. Bioidentical hormones are exactly what they sound like– they’re biologically identical to the ones naturally produced in your body. Renewed Vitality’s bioidentical estrogen is 100% natural, created using a plant-based source. Their exact chemical structure matches the kind made by the human body, and their natural makeup allows them to be more easily processed than artificial varieties. 

If you are suffering from premature menopause, or if the symptoms of menopause and perimenopause in general are causing you distress, contact Renewed Vitality to ask about our bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. It may be able to help you feel a bit more like yourself again.

In this busy day and age, we’re not always the best about listening to our bodies, but a missed period will set off alarm bells in most women’s heads as a clear sign that something is up. The most obvious answer is that amenorrhea (the medical term for a missing period) is a sign of pregnancy, but for those who are not sexually active or for whom a pregnancy test has ruled that reason out, what could be the root cause of a missed period? Turns out, there are a lot of potential reasons.

For starters, how long should you be skipping periods before you start to worry? Typically once a pregnancy has been ruled out, the time span varies based on regularity. If you’re usually very regular, start talking to your doctor after a few months have passed. If you have a history of being irregular, six to nine months is usually the time to start looking for the cause of your amenorrhea. 

 

Nutrition and Lifestyle

When the body doesn’t receive enough nutrients, endures exercise that is too intense, or a combination of those factors, the reproductive system shuts down to try to help the body cope with the physical stress. Amenorrhea is a common symptom of eating disorders for this reason, but it’s also seen in athletes or people with intense and unhealthy fitness regimens. You may see the myth floating around in weight loss and exercise circles that a missing period means you’re on the right track and working hard enough, but this is false– and dangerous. If you’ve noticed your period stopping as a result of your diet and physical activity, it’s time to reassess. Make sure you’re getting enough nutrients of all kinds and not over-exerting yourself when you exercise.

PCOS

PCOS, or polycystic ovarian syndrome, is a hormonal disorder, and even though it’s fairly common, it is often overlooked. Irregular or missing periods are a symptom of PCOS, as well as infertility problems, weight struggles, and excessive body hair and acne. A doctor can diagnose PCOS through checking your hormone levels with a blood test. If you suspect you have PCOS, it’s important to bring it up to your doctor and ask about being tested, because women with PCOS are at a higher risk for diabetes, and you may need regular screening to help you avoid this additional problem.

Thyroid Disease

If tests have ruled out hormonal problems like PCOS but you’re still having trouble figuring out why your period is missing, it’s possible that your thyroid might be the problem. Because there are so many potential causes for amenorrhea, the thyroid isn’t often the first thing doctors test for, but it is important to consider it as a factor when other explanations don’t add up.

Birth Control

Going off the pill and suddenly having a missing period can be a shock when you’ve gotten used to the regularity that the pill offers, but it’s not unheard of. Some women do experience about four to six months of amenorrhea after stopping the pill, so if you’ve just cancelled your prescription, make sure you rule out pregnancy as a cause, and then give your period a little time to come back before you really start worrying.

Menopause

We all know that menopause marks the end of our menstruating years, but your period won’t just stop dead as you approach this age. In most cases, it’s a slower process in which your period becomes irregular and unpredictable, often just skipping a month. It’s important to note that you can still become pregnant at this time in your life! When your period is irregular it becomes harder to predict ovulation, so make sure you stay on top of your birth control methods if a baby isn’t in the cards for you at this time.

Breastfeeding

With the craziness that accompanies a new baby, you may be grateful to hear that periods often stop during breastfeeding, especially if you are exclusively breastfeeding. During the weaning process it may crop back up and be irregular at first before settling back into your natural cycle, but again remember that missing or irregular periods does not mean it’s impossible for you to get pregnant. Ovulation comes before the period, and it can still happen if you aren’t careful.

Stress

There’s a good reason that medical professionals of all types are always urging their patients to lower their stress levels. Stress really can damage your physical health, and one of the telltale signs of this is menstruation coming to a stop. When stress of any kind becomes intense enough, the body goes through changes that allow it to better handle danger, and one of these changes is shutting down the reproductive system. If tests and discussion with your doctor have ruled out other causes and conditions, it may come down to the stress of your life forcing your body into a constant state of fight or flight.

 

With these potential causes for a missing period in mind, you’re now ready to take charge of your own health and get to the bottom of what’s going on with your body. Renewed Vitality is passionate about helping people stay informed and involved in their health. We are the Berks County area’s top facility for hormone replacement therapy and other treatments. To learn more, don’t hesitate to contact us!

No matter what your gender is, sex, and our relationship to it, changes over time. Attitudes, conversations, and the actual performance of the act vary with age and preference. Just because it changes however, doesn’t mean it can’t still be enjoyable for you and your partner. We’ve compiled a few simple tips on how to keep the magic alive in the bedroom (or wherever) throughout the years:

1.	Accept That Things Change This is point number one for a reason. Over the years, our bodies change and so does what works for each of us. Treating your body like it’s 20 when you’ve been using it for 60 years or more can have repercussions. Know your body and embrace those changes!

 

Communication Is Never Not Important When it comes to sex, communication is always a major part of the partnership. If you’ve never clearly and openly talked about sex with your partner, then maybe it’s time to start that ball rolling. Communicating expectations, desires, likes, and dislikes is key to adapting to the natural evolution that a sexual relationship goes through.

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Talk To Your Doctor Some changes related to sex are less about being in the mood, and more about your body behaving differently than it used to. If an open dialogue about sex with your partner is important, then it’s equally important to have conversations with your doctor or a medical professional as well. Some common issues adults run into as we get older involve blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and a host of others. Talking with your doctor about these factors and how they apply to you is always a good idea to get a solid baseline to plan from.

It’s Not Just About You Whenever there is a piece of advice here, remember that it applies to both you and your partner. Talking about your desires is important, but just as important is listening to the person you are with. Understand that if you have concerns or hangups about sexual intimacy and sexuality, your partner might as well. Try to create an open and free atmosphere that you both feel comfortable engaging in these discussions that are about both of you.

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Apply What You’ve Learned Life is all about learning and growing from applying that experience. Don’t ignore this, especially when it comes to sex! Rather than the trial and error that goes along with young age, you now have the confidence in your body’s capability. Being sure of what you want and what fits in with your body can be a major boost to self-confidence and a huge factor when it comes to your sex life.

 

Don’t Rush Things Make it about more than the act of sex—turn it into an evening. Set aside time to make the whole experience more romantic. Try to reinvigorate the time leading up to the act. Have intimate conversation, read suggestive poetry, engage in something together that you have not yet experienced but have an interest in. Bring you and your partner closer together to draw out that intimacy and pleasure.

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Don’t Stress So Much Stress isn’t a great thing to bring into sex at any age, but as we get older, stress can seriously hamper our ability to enjoy intimate experiences. Depending on your stress contributors, sometimes an honest conversation with your partner can help alleviate it. Many people attach a great deal of stress to sex in general. Take that well-earned confidence from over the years and realize that sex is nothing to stress about.

Sometimes It’s Chemistry It’s not just the joints and bones that change over the years. Hormones shift over time which can lead to decreased sex drive or a total shift in what sex can mean for a person. If your hormones are causing issues when it comes to sex, seeking out hormone treatments or supplements can yield results. Talking with experts in the field of hormone replacement therapy is a great starting point for determining what your needs might be.

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Experiment With The Formula Over time, anything we do can become routine. Even the most enjoyable tasks can fall into a regular rhythm. In order to break that sameness around sex, it’s time to shake things up. Trying new sexual positions, different kinds of sex, even where you have sex can spice up your sex life in unexpected ways. Being open to these changes necessitates conversation for everyone involved, so remember that communication!

 

Work On Yourself Outside Of Sex Your life out and about can also impact your sex life. If you live a sedentary lifestyle, your sex life can suffer. Increasing your physical activity, even when it’s just around the house can result in improvements all over including sex. Reducing the amount of alcohol you drink and quitting smoking are also both major steps you can take to greatly improve your quality of life in addition to helping out with your sex life.

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Embrace The Change

Sex is something that can be enjoyed even as you get older. It can improve your mood, bolster your health, and creates and strengthens interpersonal connections. Even when it’s different from what it used to be, it can still be a fantastic and intimate experience. Don’t let age change your ability to enjoy your life.

It’s Normal But Don’t Settle

As we get older our sex drives do have a tendency to diminish a little. This is nothing to be ashamed of, we’re not the young, energetic, sex driven 20-somethings we used to be.

It’s normal to see some drop in your sex drive, but if it seems like getting in the mood is just impossible now, it could be a sign of something more than just typical aging effects. You could be effected by a number of serious issues including hormone imbalance. 

Below are some of the potential causes of lowered libido, and keep in mind a lot of these issues can be fixed or helped!

Interpersonal Issues

While your libido is a very personal thing, it can actually be connected to your interactions with others. If your partner is experiencing performance problems, this could cause your libido to fall. This is no fault of theirs or yours, so you should feel no shame. There are options to help with sexual performance, and it could be something you two could do together to help things out in the bedroom.

Another interpersonal issue could be the birth of a child. Child birth while obviously caused by sexual activity can unfortunately lead to less of it. This can be because of stress and worry, hormonal changes, a lack of sleep, postpartum blues, or body image issues. These are all temporary issues that you have the power to work through, but if you need to don’t ever feel ashamed of seeking help. 

It’s important to remember that your libido is linked to so many factors in your life, and that it’s never something you should be ashamed of no matter what’s causing it to fall.

Medical Problems

illnesses both mental and physical can cause problems with your sex dive. Depression can destroy your drive, and anyone suffering knows that fighting depression is a very hard battle. Depression, while caused by a myriad of things, could be caused by a hormone imbalance. Fixing the root cause is the best way to get every aspect of your life back, including your sex life.

Something physical that can cause sexual drive drops are thyroid issues. If your having hormonal issues with your thyroid you could experience weight gain, fatigue, depression, and a lowered sex drive. If your having issues with your libido the first place to look is the thyroid.

Low Testosterone

It may seem odd, but testosterone is actually important to the sex drives in both men and women, and low testosterone could cause a lowered sex drive. Women’s testosterone levels peak around the mid-20s and then steadily decline until menopause where they drop dramatically. 

We don’t really think of testosterone as a feminine thing, but a having the right levels of testosterone in your body could make you feel like a 20-year-old all over again. Well, that or just make you feel much more like yourself.

Medications

Our medications are important to our health, but sometimes they can also be detrimental to it. It’s important that we know the interactions that our medications have with every aspect of our bodies, and that we know how we can counteract some of the undesirable effects.

For example, some antidepressants can actually lower your sex drive, which might be completely counter intuitive. And, blood pressure lowering drugs are almost certainly going to lower your libido. It’s important that your consult with your healthcare provider to find the best way to protect everything aspect of your emotional and physical well being. 

Getting Back Your Desire

Your sex drive isn’t gone for good. There are number of treatment options available, and hormone treatment might be the best for you. With testosterone and/or estrogen treatment you could see results that will make you feel like you did pre-menopause. 

You don’t have to settle for the “inevitable.” 

Talk to your healthcare provider about options for getting your libido back!