The Aging Process and Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder

By MC Kelby HERWriter

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Aging and sex are topics most women do not want to talk about. Not to mention, low libido, menopause and aging are all complex issue for women.

It's estimated that 43 percent of women ages 19-59 suffer from some form of female sexual dysfunction. Hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) is the most common of the recognized female sexual disorders. Worldwide, millions of women suffer from decreased libido and sexual desire as a result of HSDD. HSDD affects women of all ages and race and can last for a short period or a number of years.

While the symptoms of HSDD are well known, the causes of HSDD are not yet completely understood or explained. In many cases, women may never know for sure what caused their HSDD, although they can still cure their HSDD and resume happy, active sex lives.

Before Viagra, many believed male sexual problems were psychological. Once Viagra and other medications hit the scene and were shown to be effective at helping men remain sexually active, no one continued to believe that stress and other mental factors alone could lead to erectile dysfunction.

Get ready to see the same progression for women.

Up to now, low libido in women was thought by some to be linked to emotional and psychological problems. As more research is being done in the area of female sexual dysfunction, it is becoming clear that female sexual problems, like low libido, have more to do with biology than psychology.

Libido is probably determined by a whole range of complex psychological and physiological factors. In addition, there has not been much research on libido, menopause and aging.

Also, how women perceive themselves as they age greatly impacts sexual desire. In our culture, we are constantly exposed to images of youth. As we age, there is little to reassure women that they are still sexually attractive and beautiful. Because of this, women may lose interest in sex as they age. Talking about these emotions with your sexual partner can help relieve some of the stress around body image and aging.

Some may say that women keep information about their sex lives and sexual satisfaction in a black box. While that may be true in some cases, one group of researchers got women to open up about these very issues to learn more about libido, menopause and aging.

Researchers interviewed 2,200 women about their sexual desire as well as their sexual behaviors and sexual satisfaction. The women covered a wide range of ages (30 to 70). Participants were grouped into three main categories: premenopausal, naturally menopausal and surgically menopausal (for example, women who have had a hysterectomy).

Researchers looked for factors that determined which women had low sexual desire (low libido) and which had HSDD.

Low libido is pretty straight forward; it is having low sexual desire (which may or may not be a problem). HSDD is a more extreme form of low libido that creates distress and concern in a person. In other words, just having low libido isn’t necessarily a problem but when having low libido negatively impacts relationships and causes anxiety and worry, then it might be called HSDD.

The results found that low libido was present in 26.7 percent of the pre-menopausal women. In the post-menopausal women, low libido increased to 52 percent (almost doubling). So, we can conclude that menopause is definitely linked to low libido.

HSDD was present in 12.5 percent of the surgically menopausal women. This was 2.3 times higher than for pre-menopausal women. HSDD in naturally menopausal women occurred at a 1.2 times higher rate. The authors concluded that there is something happening hormonally in the surgical menopause group. This means that low libido and HSDD are definitely linked to aging and biological changes in the body.

Sources:
http://www.hsddonline.com
http://www.webmd.com
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://media.wiley.com

MC Ortega is the former publicist for the late Walter Payton, Coca-Cola and Dunkin’ Donuts. Ortega is a senior communications and messaging executive specializing in media relations, social media, program development and crisis communications. Also, Ortega is an avid traveler and international shopper. Ortega resides with her partner, Craig, dog, Fionne and extensive shoe collection. Ortega also enjoys jewelry design/production and flamenco dancing.

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