Too much stress and tiredness lowers sex drive significantly. Ensure you are getting sufficient sleep and are in good physical health. Meditation and yoga are excellent activities that can be used to reduce stress.

Get our detailed guide on how to prevent, reduce and control stress. Before considering using prescription medications, find out natural remedies that you can use to reduce stress and increase your body's resistance to stress.

Try changing the sexual encounter. As humans, we often fall into a normal routine. You can experiment with different sexual positions during intercourse or even enagage in your sexual activities in a different part of the home.

Try changing the atmosphere of the bedroom by using scented candles, aromatherapy and soft relaxing music.

Conditions such as back pain, osteoarthritis and rheumtoid arthritis can be quite painful and it will reduce the drive for sexual encounters.

Experiment with different sexual positions that reduce joint pain. Choose a different time during the day when the pain is less severe. For example, people with osteoarthritis generally feel less pain in the morning. Those with rheumatoid arthritis have less pain during the evening.

There is evidence that sexual activities for people with rheumatoid arthritis help to relieve pain for up to 8 hours. It is suspected to be due to the release of endorphins, a hormone that creates a sense of well-being.

As well, pain experienced by women during sexual intercourse (known as dyspareunia) will reduce the desire for sex. If the cause is vaginal dryness, use an appropriate lubricant (such as KY Jelly) prior to intercourse to make it more comfortable. Reduced lubrication may be caused by insufficient sexual excitement prior to intercourse, menopause, pregnancy or breast-feeding.

These two psychological conditions will need to be managed as they significantly reduces libido.

Unfortunately, prescription medications such as antidepressants, antianxiety drugs and sedatives can also reduce libido as well.

Sometimes it is difficult for doctors to find out if the lack of sex drive might be caused by depression or the use of the medication to treat depression.

Seek counseling to improve relationship or psychological issues. For those who have suffered from sexual trauma such as rape or sexual abuse, seek experts experienced in this area to address and resolve these past issues.

Chronic alcoholism seems to be associated with sexual dysfunction in both men and women. Often those suffering from alcohol abuse also have underlying psychological issues as well.

As well, beer contains hops, a compound with estrogen-like properties. In the long-term it can reduce sex drive in both men and women.

The heavier the men were, the lower their testosterone levels. This will result in decreased libido and quality of their sex life. This finding was reported in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (April 2009).

Many prescription medications are known to reduce libido.

If you are on prescription medications, talk to your pharmacist or doctor to see if they might cause this problem.

Examples of medications include:

Always discuss with your family doctor before you decide to discontinue any medication. Your doctor may switch you to another similar product to see if it will be less likely to reduce libido. This might be all that is needed to increase sex drive.

Testosterone is required to create the sex drive in both males and females. Too low a level of testosterone in our body will cause a loss of sex drive.

A doctor can measure the bioavailable testosterone levels. It is preferred over measuring the total testosterone level in the body as it reflects the portion that the body can easily use.

Testosterone gel are available by prescription from your doctor to increase the levels in your body if it is low.

Women may request a measurement of bioavailable testosterone levels from their family doctor to see if the levels are low.

Women with low testosterone levels can take prescription testosterone to increase their interest in sex and sexual fantasy. Research suggests that women going through menopause would also benefit from testosterone supplementation.

Hormone replacement therapy using estrogen reduces the testosterone levels in the female, thus reducing sex drive. A prescription drug called Estratest contains both estrogen and testosterone and it would be helpful in reducing the negative impact of estrogen on libido.

A male suffering from prostatis may experience pain, especially after ejaculation (orgasm). This pain is sufficient to reduce wanting to engage in sex. It would be necessary to treat the prosatitis with prescription antibiotics. Other treatment options would also include sitz baths and massage of the prostate to reduce pain.

Parkinson's disease is known to cause erectile dysfuction in men. It also causes reduced sex drive in males and females as they often also suffer from depression and a reduced sense of well-being.

It is suspected that many disease states can cause the testosterone levels to drop. These include:

As well, low levels of certain minerals such as zinc can interfere with the production of testosterone.

Men suffering from erectile dysfunction (ED) may experience a reduce sex drive as well. This may be in part due to the reduced self-confidence from being unable acheive a firm enough erection for sexual intercourse.

See our set of articles to learn everything about erectile dysfunction.

References for Low Sex Drive
Revised: August 8, 2010

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