The lack of sexual desire is a low level of interest in sexual relations, in which the affected person does not respond to the couple’s desire for sexual activity. Low libido or lack of sexual desire affects people regardless of gender. Also, it is often the case that people’s interest in sex varies according to the time they live or the period of their life, depending on stress, age, or hormonal issues. The lack of sexual desire is usually accompanied by another physical or psychic problem, the most common being a sexual dysfunction.
Although both sexes can suffer from this problem, women suffer more from it, leading to feelings of guilt.
Delfina Mieville Manni, a sociologist, and sexologist explain that men have been educated in genital sexuality, very focused on their penis. “Having sex is a firm male mandate, so it seems that the loss of erection is a big problem because a visible erection is expected from the man. Women, on the contrary, and in general, have not been educated in sex. ” The expert is committed to understand desire as an anteroom. “You can understand desire as fantasies and not so many practices. It would be interesting to get out of the coital partner analysis. ”
The problem with low libido is that it can affect both the person who suffers it and their partner if they have it. The good part is that you can have a solution and with it change the situation in so many aspects of an individual’s life and a relationship.
Types of lack of sexual desire
When the problem of lack of sexual desire arises, several types can be distinguished.
- Primary: mainly affects women who have never had enough sexual desire in their lives. It implies a zero capacity to have sexual fantasies and few behaviors with a sexual purpose. It occurs since adolescence and worsens in adults.
- Secondary: those people who have enjoyed a normal desire but who lose interest in sexual behavior.
- Generalized: the affected person can experience desire neither towards his partner nor towards other people.
- Situational: you do not experience sexual desire towards your partner but towards other people.
Causes of low sex drive
All these types can have different reasons, either organic or psychological.
- Treatment with some medications.
- Hormonal disorders and neuroendocrine problems.
- Metabolic diseases.
- Chronic diseases.
- Drugs
- Diabetes
- High blood sugar levels can cause vascular and nervous damage. These effects can cause erectile dysfunction in men and decreased blood flow to the genitals in women.
- Cancer: Different treatments for cancer, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, usually harm sexual desire, as documented in numerous studies.
- Heart ailments: Heart disease can cause damage to blood vessels and a decrease in blood circulation. This can reduce blood flow to the genitals thus decreasing such decisive aspects as arousal or lubrication.
- Insomnia.
- One of the many problems that obstructive sleep apnea causes untreated is that it can cause the libido to drop significantly.
- The emotional and psychological factors
- Mental health problems that result from anxiety, depression, fatigue, low self-esteem, or previous sexual abuse can decrease a person’s interest in sexual activity. Likewise, issues within a relationship, including lack of trust, conflict, and lack of communication, can influence sexual desire.
- Some medications can cause sexual dysfunction or decreased sexual desire. These include antidepressants, antipsychotics, medications to treat the prostate, hormonal contraceptives, and medications for hypertension. Also, alcohol and drug abuse are factors that can negatively affect sexual desire.
Among the psychological factors that stand out are:
- Relationship problems
- Sexual dysfunctions, such as anorgasmia, vaginismus, or erectile dysfunction.
- Mood disorders.
- Anxiety and stress
- Fatigue.
- Fear of not satisfying the couple.
- Sexual life is unsatisfactory.
- Monotony.
As the experts of this institute point out, there are times that a combination of organic and psychological causes can occur.
Specifically female low libido causes
- The pregnancy
- Hormonal changes that occur during and after pregnancy can affect a woman’s sexual desire, but not all women equally. Some do not affect your libido at all, and yet others suffer from it very strongly.
- Menopause, Menopause leads to a decrease in estrogen levels and even a drop in testosterone levels, which women also produce usually, although in smaller quantities. However, this loss in the production of testosterone usually contributes to the loss of sexual desire.
- With menopause, and especially after it, the loss of estrogen can cause vaginal dryness and that with it, sexual relations become painful, so that interest in sex decreases many times.
Problem solution
To treat the problem, Mieville advises going to a sexologist. If there are physiological causes, this professional can refer you to the doctor. If the origin is psychological, you should start therapy with the sexologist himself.
They explain that in this type of therapy, individual and couple activities are carried out to carry out at home. In short, “almost all the factors that maintain low sexual desire are worked on.”