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!
Diet is a major part of how our bodies operate. Food is the fuel that we put into the burner, and so it can largely dictate how our bodies grow and respond to the environment, and it can even affect hormone production. While there are several other factors regarding the production of testosterone, the food we eat plays a role. Let’s unpack the causes of lowered testosterone, and what can be done about it.
What Are The Causes Of Low Testosterone?
There can be a wide range of factors when it comes to lowered testosterone production. Over time, production can naturally wane and decrease, or it can be related to pituitary or adrenal gland issues. Diet can also play a part. Some foods provide the nutrients necessary for healthy testosterone production, while others can impede it. Here are some foods you should eat—and some you should avoid—when seeking to boost your testosterone levels.
Food To Boost
Diet doesn’t always return immediate results when it comes to hormone production. Think of it as a way to improve your internal environment so that your body can more easily produce testosterone. Eating foods rich in these nutrients that your body needs to produce testosterone is a better option than just taking supplements because of the overall effect of a healthy diet.
Vitamin D Low-Fat Milk
Vitamin D is a major resource the body needs when it comes to hormone production, specifically testosterone. Milk is an important component of any diet to develop and maintain strong bones and teeth, but with the added benefit of a vitamin D boost, you’re further increasing the benefits.
Zinc Rich Foods
Red meat, beans, and seeds are all excellent sources of zinc. This mineral is important in testosterone production, and when eaten in the right amounts, can provide benefits beyond simply boosting zinc levels. However, eating too much red meat has been linked to serious health risks like raised cholesterol and potential bowel cancer.
Fatty Fish & Fish Oil
Fatty fish—like salmon, sardines, and trout—are full of important omega-3 fatty acids. Fatty acids have been found to have a positive correlation towards improved testicular function, and therefore improved testosterone production. Other benefits include reducing risk factors for heart disease, improved eye health, and even combat depression and anxiety.
Eggs
More specifically, egg yolks. These are great sources of vitamin D as well as other nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, and more. While you need to keep an eye on your intake if you have known cholesterol issues, most people can safely incorporate this nutrient rich food without much concern.
What To Avoid
Plastic-Wrapped or Canned Foods
According to a 2013 study, those who worked in environments with lots of BPA had lowered testosterone levels. While the average consumer isn’t exposed to nearly that level of BPA, one article found that a vast majority of men attending a fertility clinic had BPA in urine samples. While reducing your intake of foods prepackaged in this way may not make all of the difference, it can’t hurt, and encourages eating fresher foods.
Highly Processed Foods
Trans fats have been linked to decreased testicular function in men. These kinds of fats are most commonly found in highly processed foods that are also high in extra sugar and sodium. Whenever you look at something that might be an easy-to-grab snack or is extra convenient, take a look at the nutritional label to see what you’re putting into your body.
Alcohol
Before we get ahead of ourselves, this does not mean that alcohol should be avoided at all costs, but drinking in excess can have detrimental effects. In one study, it was found that it had a reversing behavior across genders; men who drank more had lower testosterone, and women who drank more had higher.
How Do You Plan For A Testosterone Rich Diet?
Whenever you set out to correct bodily function with diet, it’s important to discuss this with a hormone specialist or a professional nutritionist. Everyone’s bodies work differently, so talking to a professional about your concerns is the best way to get a baseline for yourself.
In the case of lowered testosterone, diet is a great place to start, but a doctor may have other recommendations. Exercise and hormone replacement therapies can also be incorporated alongside dietary changes to further improve testosterone production.
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!
As our bodies age, some processes slow or change with time. You may notice you have less energy or it’s harder to lose weight as you get older. This is a normal and natural occurrence. This is can largely be due to hormone production within the body slowing down. Women experience a significant drop in specific hormone production through menopause. Do men experience something similar? The answer is yes.
What Is Andropause?
Most men also experience a reduction in the production of hormones, specifically testosterone, as they get older. Known as Andropause, this process is a more gradual decline over many years instead of the more abrupt experience of menopause.
How Is It Different From Menopause?
It also differs from menopause in the way that not everyone experience andropause. Because of this variability, some doctors are hesitant to consider it the male equivalent to menopause. In most cases, andropause is caused by reduced testosterone production. With the wide range of testosterone levels among men, it’s hard to establish a true baseline that says “below this line is andropause.”
Monitor Your Own Levels
That being said, if you notice yourself experiencing a dip in what constitutes normal function for you, it might be a good idea to discuss with your doctor your concerns and potential options going forward. Sometimes symptoms are temporary and unrelated to testosterone production, and a doctor can run some tests to determine their origin.
What Are The Symptoms?
As testosterone levels differ from person to person, the severity of symptoms can vary just as much. More common symptoms include difficulty sleeping, reduced muscle mass, difficulty concentrating, and lowered labido. Other symptoms can range from feelings of depression and decreased motivation to decreased bone density and erectile dysfunction.
As with menopause, men experiencing andropause can be subjected to loss of body hair, hot flashes, and swollen and tender breast tissue.
You’re Not Alone
It is important to remember that while these symptoms can be embarrassing and unpleasant, they’re not unusual and a normal part of aging for many men. Identifying your concerns early with a professional is key to reducing symptoms quickly and maintaining your hormonal balance.
Is There Treatment Available?
Just like with menopause, it is possible to reduce symptoms by making lifestyle changes in diet and exercise. Many doctors may also prescribe medications to combat specific symptoms, such as antidepressants. In many cases, these symptoms can be combated as a whole using hormone replacement therapy.
Consulting A Professional
Working with your hormone professional or doctor can help determine your specific needs and if your symptoms are caused by andropause or by another condition.
Renewed Vitality Can Help
If you are looking into whether hormone replacement therapy might be right for you, Renewed Vitality is here to help. Our trained experts specialize in helping identify the cause of hormonal imbalances and can recommend specific courses of action as well as treatments tailored for your unique situation. Contact us for more information and a consultation today.
Hormones dictate so much of our lives that sometimes, it’s hard to realize what kind of effect they can have on our day to day. They control everything, including our emotions and moods.
If hormones fall into imbalance, then our moods can fluctuate wildly and make day to day functions difficult. It’s important to understand which hormones affect our moods most so that we can address issues when they arise.
Serotonin and Dopamine
Some hormones are directly responsible for regulating moods: serotonin and dopamine. When these hormones are being produced in proper amounts, it’s easier to control moods and regulate thought processes. These are the primary hormones responsible with preventing depression and similar emotional and mood disorders.
Testosterone
Testosterone is also a key hormone when it comes to mood regulation. When your body is lower on testosterone, you can feel physically sluggish, muscle mass and tone diminish, and sex drive lessens.
However, the effects of lowered testosterone go beyond the physical, but also result in emotional issues. These physical effects can also result in anxiety about physical performance, depression as a result of lowered energy, and mood swings.
Estrogen
Estrogen is another hormone that controls and stabilizes moods. When estrogen is out of normal balance, either as a result of having too much or too little, mood swings can occur. These mood swings can vary between active irritability or aggressiveness and sluggish depression. At other times this imbalance results in high levels of anxiety as well.
Though many think of testosterone as primarily male and estrogen as an exclusively female hormone, everyone needs both in varying amounts in order to have healthy and balanced physical and mental functions.
Thyroid Hormones
Thyroid hormones are also key to keeping energy levels high as well as regulating mood. By keeping cells in the brain energized and functioning efficiently, your mood will be positively affected. When these levels are lower, mood will be lower as well.
Looking For Help?
When attempting to track down the exact source of a mood shift, it’s important to remember that no hormones act without interacting with many different parts of the body alongside many other hormones.
Seeking a diagnosis and discussing your concerns with a professional hormone therapist or doctor are both valid avenues to follow when seeking a solution. In many cases hormone therapy can address and reverse these negative effects of hormone imbalance.
If you are looking to talk to someone about a possible hormone imbalance, the experts at Renewed Vitality are here to help!
Do Men Experience Hormone Imbalances?
Men are equally susceptible to hormone imbalances as women. While it’s fairly well understood that women have a monthly hormone cycle, what’s less commonly known is that men also have a hormone cycle. These hormones do quite a bit to regulate much of what makes up everyday life.
What Happens When They’re Wrong?
If a man’s hormones are thrown out of ratio, there can be a chain reaction throughout the body. The compounding effects of a hormone imbalance can easily overwhelm, but there are solutions out there. The key to finding which solutions are best for you is to identify which symptoms you are exhibiting. These will help determine what specific hormone imbalance you could be experiencing.
Do Many Men Experience This?
It’s important to realize that you are not alone in this experience. Most people experience some level of hormone imbalance at some point in their lives, be it growing up, after a significant life change, or as a random occurrence. There are solutions and help out there, so don’t hesitate to reach out if you believe you have a hormone imbalance.
The Telltale Signs of Hormone Imbalance
Reduced or Irregular Sex Drive
When hormones that regulate libido are not in proper balance, a reduced sex drive is usually the result.
Reduced Body Hair Growth
As the growth of body hair varies from person to person, it’s important to understand what is normal for you, isn’t normal for everyone. If you notice a significant change
Osteoporosis
Without the hormones maintaining bone growth, they can become weak and brittle. This often presents itself as severe bone pain or slumped posture.
Reduced Muscle Mass
This can be a tricky thing to identify as not exercising can also result in a loss of muscle tone and definition. However, if this loss occurs rapidly and without noticeable cause, it could likely be caused by a hormone imbalance.
Difficulty Concentrating
Often referred to as “brain fog,” this haze makes it difficult to focus on tasks. With this symptom, it’s common for short term memory to be affected. You may forget what you were doing on your way to do it.
Don’t Forget
These are not the only effects caused by a hormone imbalance, though they are some of the most easily identifiable. You may not be experiencing any of these symptoms, but if something feels off to you, it’s still worth talking with your doctor about why that might be. It’s possible that you are in the midst of an imbalance and don’t even realize it.
