Throughout your life, you are likely to experience periods of high and low sex drive, an experience which is completely normal, but frustrating nonetheless. If you are concerned about these changes because they are negatively affecting your life, you should talk to your doctor, who can work with you to find the right solution.
Causes
Both physical and emotional concerns can cause changes in sex drive. The ebb and flow of hormones can cause high and low sex drive, varying throughout the month and throughout your lifetime. If you experience pain during sex or cannot orgasm, you may also have low sex drive. You may also experience a low sex drive if you have poor body image or feel emotionally distant from your partner. On the flip side, you’ll have a higher sex drive when you feel close to your partner and when you feel better about yourself.
Time Frame
During the times that you are most fertile, you’ll experience a higher sex drive than normal; it is your body’s natural instinct to procreate. Post-pregnancy or during menopause, you should see a significant drop in your sex drive. Changes in sex drive, based on external factors, may last until you take action against the problem that is causing it.
Effects
If you are outside a relationship, a high sex drive could lead to risky sexual behavior, such as unprotected sex or sex with multiple partners, potentially leading to an unwanted pregnancy or a sexually transmitted disease. Always be prepared to have protected sex. Inside a relationship, low sex drive is a bigger problem than high sex drive. Sex is an important part of your relationship. If you have a lower sex drive than your partner, it could lead to relationship troubles, such as fighting, emotional distance and even infidelity.
Solutions
Talk to your doctor if you suspect that your sex drive problems are hormonal. Your doctor may prescribe estrogen or testosterone. Exercise can play a big role in increasing your sex drive. It produces endorphins that make you happier and it improves your body image. For many women, wanting to have sex starts in your head rather than with your body. This means that thinking about sex, wearing sexy clothes or reading romance novels could all put you in the mood.
Misconceptions
A high or low sex drive is not necessarily a problem. If both you and your partner are comfortable with your sex life, you do not have to work toward changing it. Recognizing that desire will come and go throughout the lifetime of a relationship–from both male and female sides–is healthy.
Photo Credit
- romance image by Mat Hayward from Fotolia.com
