November 17,2022

Women’s sexual desires naturally fluctuate over the years. Highs and lows commonly coincide with the beginning or end of a relationship or with major life changes, such as pregnancy, menopause or illness. Here are the major causes and how to conquer them for a better sex life!

Since sexual satisfaction plays a crucial part in a women’s physical and mental well-being, problems with low sex drive deserve an equal amount of attention and treatment as any other physical or mental illness.

How do you know if your sex drive is low?

Naturally, you will know if your sex drive is not operating as it usually does. If you want to have sex less often than your partner does or avoiding intimacy with your partner, especially when the both of you are in your prime sexual peaks, there may be an underlying issue that needs to be addressed.

Similarly, even if your sex drive is weaker than it once was, your relationship may be stronger than ever. At the end of it all, there is no magic formula for defining low sex drive. It varies between women however there are some key indicators that you can be mindful of.

Symptoms of low sex drive in women include

• Having no interest in any type of sexual activity, including masturbation
• Never or rarely having sexual fantasies or thoughts
• Being concerned by your lack of sexual activity or fantasies

Sex drive issues in various forms affect nearly 50% of women. Relationship issues, anger, and resentment towards themselves can all result from unaddressed sex drive issues.

Desire for sex is based on a complex concoction of many things affecting intimacy, including physical and emotional well-being, experiences, beliefs, lifestyle, and your current relationship. If you’re experiencing a problem in any of these areas, it can affect your desire for sex. As a result, there is no straightforward answer for your problems surrounding sexual desire, it is all intense personal and understanding it will take a lot of self-awareness, honesty and introspection. Until you’re ready to be honest with yourself about WHY you may be struggling, you will never reach a solution.

If your background and upbringing included fostering shame towards your body, or subtle messages that having sexual desires is in some way wrong or immoral, you are most likely to experience low sex drive. This is often the case for many women coming from highly religious backgrounds who have developed complexes surrounding sex due to their upbringing and conditioning.

So, what are some of the common causes of low sex drive for women who suffer from it?

Physical causes

There are a variety of illnesses, physical changes and prescription medication that can cause low sex drive, for example

There can be many reasons for this, including:

• falling levels of sex hormones (oestrogen and testosterone) just before, during and after the menopause in women 
• falling levels of sex hormones (testosterone) in men
• age-related health problems, including mobility problems 
• side effects of medication

Treatment

If the problems are identified to be stress, age or relationship-based, as identified above, there are several approaches that may help.

Your doctor may suggest counseling in order to overcome any issues that may be affecting your relationship. For this to be effective, it is vital that you and your partner work as a team with a therapist to resolve any potential issues. A therapist can help teach you how to better communicate with your partner and suggest sexual techniques that will make your feel closer

Lifestyle changes such as exercising regularly, avoiding smoking and alcohol, and as well as setting aside time to be intimate with your partner all help alleviate stress and improve libido.

Due to a reduction of blood flow to the vagina, many premenopausal and postmenopausal women undergo changes in oestrogen levels. If low oestrogen levels are the cause of your HSDD symptoms, then your doctor may recommend estrogen therapy using a cream, suppository, or ring that releases estrogen in the vagina without the unwanted side effects that come with estrogen pills