Women: How to Reignite Your Sex Drive
What lowers blood pressure, decreases the risk of heart disease, improves sleep, bolsters the immune system, and reduces stress, anxiety, and depression? If you are thinking of exercise, you’re right, but there is another, more enjoyable activity that delivers all of these benefits and more: sex.
Sex is great for your health. In addition to its positive effects on physical and mental well-being, it also increases intimacy and connectedness with your partner. As Mae West said, “Sex is emotion in motion.”
So, what do you do when you just aren’t feeling it? You recognize the importance of a fulfilling sex life and you want to want it, but your sex drive just isn’t there. What can you do to boost a low libido and reawaken your interest in intimacy?
You start by identifying underlying causes and then taking steps to address them. In this article we will discuss common causes and potential solutions for perking up a flagging sex drive.
Are Health Challenges or Medications Dampening Your Libido?
Dealing with pain, fatigue, or other unpleasant symptoms can put a damper on your sex drive. Headaches, musculoskeletal problems, and gynecological disorders that cause painful intercourse are just a few of the health problems that can reduce your desire and enjoyment of sex. Depression, anxiety disorders, and emotional issues that undermine your confidence and self-esteem take a toll as well.
Medications are another potential culprit. Zoloft, Celexa, Prozac, and other SSRI antidepressants, which are taken by 18% of American women, are notorious for reducing sexual desire and the ability to achieve orgasm. Birth control pills diminish libido and cause vaginal dryness and pain during sex in some women. Other medications with adverse sexual side effects include cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, benzodiazepines (tranquilizers), diuretics, and beta blockers.
- Discuss your medical issues and medications with your healthcare provider. Lifestyle changes, targeted nutrients, and other drug-free treatments are effective alternatives for pain, mood issues, obesity, cholesterol, and many other health challenges.
Are You Going Through Hormonal Changes?
Female hormones fluctuate from day to day, month to month, and year to year, and these fluctuations can have a profound effect on sexual excitement and response. Both estrogen and testosterone, which the ovaries produce in relatively small amounts, fire up libido. A woman’s sexual satisfaction and performance are typically highest in her 20s, when testosterone production peaks. Hormone levels also increase around ovulation and during pregnancy, and an uptick in sexual excitement is often experienced during these times.
Hormone production begins a slow and steady decline around age 40–45. Many women report a noticeable drop in their sex life, along with other symptoms such as vaginal dryness, hot flashes, and mood swings that negatively affect sexual function. Hormonal imbalances and changes in sexual response can also occur in younger women, especially those who are dealing with conditions like irregular menstrual cycles, or PMS.
- Herbal supplements including Siberian rhubarb, black cohosh, dong quai, and chasteberry have been shown to help with hormone imbalances and related symptoms. (More on this below.) If symptoms are severe, it may be worth talking to your doctor about hormone testing and treatment with bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.
Have You Discussed These Issues with Your Partner?
Even in a healthy relationship, partners often have differing and evolving sexual needs and expectations. As comedian Billy Crystal once said, “Women need a reason to have sex. Men just need a place.” Although talking about sexual issues may be uncomfortable, it is important for couples to address these issues and learn how to manage them. Communication is essential for true intimacy.
- Improving communication with your partner, with the help of a professional if needed, can enhance all aspects of your relationship.
Is Fatigue or Stress Part of the Problem?
When you’re stressed and exhausted, sex may be the last thing on your mind—and for many women who are juggling work, family, relationships, household chores, and other responsibilities, stress and fatigue are status quo.
Trying to keep up with the constant demands of today’s world often leads to unhealthy behaviors such as fast food eaten on the go, disrupted sleep, inadequate exercise, and unhealthy methods of coping like overeating and excessive alcohol. When your body is besieged by these or other stressors, reproduction and procreation are the last priority, and the hormones that facilitate sexual excitement tank. This is a very common cause of lack of sexual arousal in women during this stage of life.
- Stress and exhaustion can be ameliorated with a healthy diet, regular exercise, rejuvenating sleep, relaxation/stress management, and other lifestyle changes. You already know this—but you also know it’s easier said than done. Making lifestyle changes that help balance your hormones and restore your sex life takes time and energy, which you may not have in abundance. The good news is that some botanical supplements can help get you back on track.
Ashwagandha for Improving Stress, Energy & Sexual Health
Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is a botanical that has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years. Classified as an adaptogen, it helps the body adapt to the adverse effects of stress by modulating stress hormones and lowering cortisol, a hormone that is elevated when you’re under stress.
Extracts of ashwagandha have significant benefits for low energy, mental and physical fatigue, poor sleep, focus and concentration problems, anxiousness, mood issues, and other stress-related problems. Reduced sexual satisfaction is also a stress-related problem—so, can ashwagandha also increase sexual arousal in women?
According to a 2022 study, it can. This placebo-controlled clinical trial, which involved women between the ages of 18 and 50 who had “persistently or recurrently deficient (or absent) sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity.” The women were randomly assigned to take either 600 mg of an ashwagandha root extract or placebo capsules for eight weeks.
When they were reevaluated, the women taking ashwagandha had significantly greater improvements in the frequency/intensity of sexual arousal and in satisfying sexual encounters, compared to those in the placebo group. The researchers concluded, “Oral administration of Ashwagandha administered for eight weeks improves the female sexual health in otherwise healthy women…”
This is not surprising, given ashwagandha’s well-deserved reputation for enhancing energy, vitality, and general well-being. Ashwagandha is not a magic bullet, but as this study suggests, sticking with it for eight weeks—while addressing the stressors in your life and adopting a healthier lifestyle—will likely produce results.
- The suggested daily dose is 600 mg of ashwagandha root extract, standardized for 5% withanolides—and that’s exactly what you get in our Nugenix for Women Balance formula.
Siberian Rhubarb for Balancing Hormones
Hormone imbalances are another underlying cause of reduced libido that can be addressed with medicinal herbs. Although hormone replacement therapy is a valid treatment, it’s important to know about all effective options.
A botanical called Siberian rhubarb has been shown to help restore hormone balance and improve symptoms. Because this compound approaches hormone balancing from different and important angles, it is recommended to take it in combination with ashwagandha and other botanicals that support women’s health, and that’s why we’ve combined many of these powerful compounds in Balance.
Siberian rhubarb (Rheum rhaponticum) has been used in Germany for more than 20 years to help level out women’s hormones. By binding to estrogen receptors throughout the body, it improves a broad range of symptoms associated with low or fluctuating levels of estrogen. In addition to enhancing sexual function, Siberian rhubarb reduces anxiousness, low mood, sleeplessness, hot flashes, and other symptoms. The recommended dose of Siberian rhubarb extract (also called rhapontic rhubarb extract) is 4 mg a day.
Looking to Boost Your Sex Life?
If your sex life has gone missing, rest assured that it can be found—if you are willing to take stock of your physical, mental, and emotional health…and take a little help from Balance.
Female sexuality is multifaceted, and many factors contribute to sexual passion. It may take time and effort to reignite that spark, but the payoff of a satisfying sex life is nothing short of spectacular!