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Lisa Rinna Shares Valuable Sexual Health Tips

 
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Actress Lisa Rinna advocates for women's sexual health as she discusses her own sexual desire and postpartum challenges and provides information for women with low sexual desire who want to rekindle intimacy with their partners.

Todd Hartley:
Hi, and thank you for joining us at EmpowHER where we improve health and change lives. Did you know in a recent study 89% of women said, “Desire for sexual activity is the most important component of a healthy sex life”? To talk about losing sexual desire I am joined right now by actress Lisa Rinna known to many as Billie Reed on “Days of Our Lives’”, Taylor McBride on “Melrose Place” and who could forget “Dancing with the Stars”? Hi Lisa!

Lisa Rinna:
Hi, I love this. I love EmpowHER – just the name EmpowHER is so great.

Todd Hartley:
Oh thank you so much. It’s a labor of love to us to be able to advocate for women around the world and we are grateful that you are here.

Lisa Rinna:
I am likewise grateful to be here.

Todd Hartley:
Thank you. We saw in a recent survey that women are more than seven times more familiar with erectile dysfunction than hypoactive sexual desire disorder. Now to help women who are silently suffering right now, Lisa, how did your sexual desire change after the birth of your second child?

Lisa Rinna:
Well for me, it changed drastically. It went to zero, I mean I lost it completely and that had never happened to me in my life. I was 37 years old and had enjoyed a healthy sexual desire up until that point and I think, you know with the drop of the hormone, the level that had hit me was so dramatic and it just didn’t go away and so I did everything I could at the time and this is eight years ago, to educate myself and try to find ways of rekindling my sexual desire and fortunately, I was able to do that and I was able to do it on my own. I did have my husband as a support system, which is huge, and I was lucky.

I was very, very lucky to be, I am a very tenacious, very proactive person and for me, if I have a problem I need to just find ways to fix it, you know? That’s about it – just that simple. So I went about ways that I thought would help me regain my sexual desire and it worked for me, what I was able to do.

Todd Hartley:
Lisa, it seems like there are a lot of women, like I mentioned earlier, that are suffering that recognize or at least believe it might be a problem in the relationship and not a change in the hormonal structure. What do you say to a woman like that?

Lisa Rinna:
Well, I think that everything has to be looked at because you really don’t know and we are just beginning. This is sort of the beginning of really, it is the beginning of really talking about it, really being open and honest and really bringing an awareness to it, but I think that we haven’t certainly even come close to figuring it out, and I think all the things pertain to it. You have to take a look at your relationship. You have to take a look at your health. You have to take a look at your weight. You have to take a look at how you feel about yourself – are you depressed?

I mean there are so many different things I think that go into it, and for myself, I knew my relationship was not the issue because I knew, you know, we do a lot of work; we’ve been together for 18 years and fortunately I have a partner and we are both very hyper aware of what’s going on, so I knew it wasn’t that.

I knew it was hormonal because I had just come out of a tremendous postpartum depression that I haven’t talked about too publicly in my life because that’s a time, you know, there were other people talking very publicly about it and I just sort of piped in but I didn’t bring it to the forefront because I just didn’t know I was even going through it the very first time.

So, long story short, in my experience mine was definitely triggered by that depression, I think.

Todd Hartley:
Lisa, we have been working on EmpowHER for over three years. One of our first employees had very severe postpartum depression not once, but twice.

Lisa Rinna:
Oh yeah, so did I; I had it twice.

Todd Hartley:
It’s an issue here at this company that is, it’s very personal with us. Tell me why it was important for you to team up with the Society for Women’s Health Research and for their website sexbrainbody.com to help educate women about their sexual health?

Lisa Rinna:
Well because of my own personal journey and my own personal suffering in silence and not really having anywhere to go like Sex Brain Body to find ways, to get information, to be empowered, so to speak…

Todd Hartley:
Right.

Lisa Rinna:
And I think it’s really, after going through it and after really being open and honest and advocating for women for the last eight years and talking about sexuality I have been very open. I wrote a book “Rinnavation” a year ago and I was very open about everything and very open about my sex life with my husband, and so I find the more open I am and the more I share with other women, the more I can help myself and other people and we can get through it together.

So, I think that’s part of this job that I am able to fortunately do and to be in the spotlight and have the opportunity to do something good with it. I think as performers we’re always looking for that like, how can we use this, and be a giver and give back because we are so fortunate and we have a platform.

Todd Hartley:
Yeah, it’s amazing how what we struggle through ends up being what our work is, what our life passion is.

Lisa Rinna:
Isn’t it? It really is and no matter whether you are going through cancer or you have a loved one who just battled cancer or whatever it is; you have diabetes and you are fighting for that – no matter what it is, it’s truly about being touched in some way in your life and that is what drives us and gives us the passion I believe.

Todd Hartley:
It’s so cool. I get chills when I hear you say that. I’m the first person that’s been saved by EmpowHER. I discovered I had a heart condition while doing interviews with heart doctors and…

Lisa Rinna:
Is that right?

Todd Hartley:
. . . had a procedure shortly after so I understand what you are saying and how it becomes purpose. Let’s talk about being open and being honest in how women can talk with their spouse or even their physician about what they are experiencing when it comes to their sexual desire.

Lisa Rinna:
Yes, I think, you know, I didn’t talk to my doctor. I didn’t even think to talk to my doctor to be honest with you, which is odd to me because I am a person that thinks those things but yet, I think in the incidence of sexual desire and just talking about sex in general, we’re just, as woman we are brought up not to. It’s just not something that you pay that much attention to. You are really not supposed to, well, if you are going to do it you just don’t really talk about it and you don’t want to do it too much because then you’re considered a bad girl. I mean there are so many, I think, negative connotations around it and I would love to be able to be part of the change of that and to make it more accepting and I think that’s another reason why I have teamed up and I am so excited to be a part of ‘Sex Brain Body: Make the Connection’ because we are saying to women, “It’s okay; it’s okay to be going through this; it’s okay to talk about it; it’s okay to have it. Whatever it is, it is information is power,” and to be able to talk about it is so exciting to me because I am a firm believer in a healthy sex life and a healthy sexual desire and a healthy sex life with your partner is the glue that holds the relationship together. It’s so very important.

Todd Hartley:
So what could a woman who is listening to this interview that might be having some of the same symptoms that you experienced, what can she discover if she goes to sexbrainbody.com?

Lisa Rinna:
Well there’s a lot of things. There’s a toolkit that she can download that has everything from a sexual checklist, which is really, really cool because it asks those questions. It asks you questions that make you think and that make you really go back and start to think about your sexual desire or lack of, and it’s great. And then there are flash cards to educate and I mean, they show parts of the body that I don’t know if we always know where these parts are or we don’t necessarily feel comfortable asking someone of, or whatever it is, it’s all information.

It’s about how can you talk to your doctor; how can you talk to your spouse. You can take a questionnaire with your spouse and it opens up the dialogue so it really gets the ball rolling.

Todd Hartley:
I looked over most of the website. I found the Sexual Satisfaction Check-Up – such an interesting way of looking at the issue of your sexual satisfaction. I thought about bringing it home and having the conversation with my spouse to make sure because she advocates for my health and I advocate for her health and it only seems like a logical connection for a healthy relationship to have those conversations.

Lisa Rinna:
Absolutely, and I just don’t think we do because life gets so busy and we are all doing five different things at once and how often are you going to sit down and have the time to have a meal and talk about your sex life and to really… I mean it’s hard enough to find time to have sex.

Todd Hartley:
It’s also a scary conversation to have.

Lisa Rinna:
It is. It’s very vulnerable. It’s just very, very vulnerable but that’s the kind of thing that really connects you as a partner and makes you not just roommates.

Todd Hartley:
Oh wow, isn’t that interesting whenever you get to the point.

Lisa Rinna:
Isn’t it? I mean it really is.

Todd Hartley:
Yeah, I have been married, my wife and I have been together for almost 11 years and 8 years married and you do have those moments where you are like, “Oh, is this a roommate or is this a . . .” and so it’s interesting, but whenever you open up the floodgate of discussion everything changes.

Lisa Rinna:
It does, doesn’t it, because that really is, isn’t it all that communication?

Todd Hartley:
Yeah.

Lisa Rinna:
It really is no matter what. You get down to it a good relationship is about real, honest, open, vulnerable communication.

Todd Hartley:
Yeah, and then I make the mistake of having the TV on during dinner when we could be having valuable conversations about things that are important.

Lisa Rinna:
Well there you go, I mean, you know, just another thing to, you know, that made you aware. All of a sudden you are now aware of that so it’s all about awareness and you can then go, “Okay, you know what, maybe I’ll turn the TV off tonight and maybe I’ll bring out that checklist and we’ll have a discussion about it,” you know, who knows that where that would lead you to?

Todd Hartley:
Oh I get a pretty good idea where it’s going to lead.

Lisa Rinna:
I do too because you are talking about it; it creates a stage for it.

Todd Hartley:
Oh that is so funny. Well she is Lisa Rinna and she has teamed up with the Society for Women’s Health Research, which is dedicated to improving women’s health through advocacy, education and of course, research. For more information please visit sexbrainbody.com.

Lisa Rinna, thank you so much for helping us improve sexual health and change women’s lives.

Lisa Rinna:
It is my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

Go To 'Sex Brain Body: Make the Connection'

Lisa Rinna is a paid spokesperson for Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Add a Comment3 Comments

EmpowHER Guest
Anonymous

I have always been a big fan of Lisa and appreciate her candid comments. Very helpful and informative!!!

July 1, 2010 - 8:48am
EmpowHER Guest
Anonymous

I thought the interview was not only informative but it brought such an extra touch that such a beautiful accomplished women shares an issue that so many women may keep silent. Great!

June 30, 2010 - 10:03am
EmpowHER Guest
Anonymous

Thank you for that helpful interview. I enjoyed it!

June 30, 2010 - 9:05am
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