Having a different sex drive than your partner can be a tough obstacle to overcome. Of course, there is no magic number of times you should be having sex, but if you feel like you're just not enjoying sex like you used to or don't want to have sex as often than you used to, you might be suffering from a low sex drive.
While you won't know for sure what the culprit is until you talk with a doctor, these common reasons for low libido may point you in the right direction.
You're really tired.
Being too tired to have sex is an old cliche, but it turns out there may be more to it than we once thought. A study by the National Sleep Foundation found that one in four married Americans say they are often too tired at the end of the day to have sex with their partner.
A study in The Journal of Sexual Medicine also found that lack of sleep can have a negative effect on your sex drive.
So if you want to get busy between the sheets, you've gotta get busy with your pillow.
You're stressed out.
If you're really feeling the pressure at work or you're beefing with a friend, your cortisol levels are probably high as a result of stress.
That cortisol is a total mood killer and may be suppressing testosterone and other hormone productions, making the thought of getting it on less appealing to you.
Your hormones are out of whack.
If you were born with naturally-low testosterone, whether you identify as male or female, you may have always had a low sex drive. Your doctor can test you to see if your hormones are imbalanced.
But sometimes it doesn't just happen naturally. If you're a person who takes birth control, switching pills or suddenly getting off a pill may be to blame.
While the pill has not been proven to affect sex drive, it can affect your hormones, and many people who have taken it report a sudden shift in how much they want to have sex.
In all of these cases, you can talk to your doctor to see if another form of contraception might be right for you.
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