Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsIdentify ChangesApproachesFor FemalesFor Males
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Identify Changes
Approaches
For Females
For Males
Before taking steps to increase your libido, check in with yourself to identify what may be causing the dip. Did you get a new job? Alter your diet? Start a new medication? How is the quality of your relationship? Are you stressed?
This article will help you understand what impacts your libido through a holistic view of your health, relationships, and emotions. Regardless of gender, you will learn how to flow with your individual patterns of desire and learn about integrative remedies, like food and herbs, to work towards alibido that satisfies you.
Janina Steinmetz / Getty Images
First Step to Increasing Sex Drive: Identify Changes
A lot can impact libido, so try to stay out of the blame game if your libido is lower than usual or different from a friend’s. Instead, look more holistically at how your life and sex drive are related. Here are some life challenges and changes that may impact your libido.
TerminologyVerywell Health prefers to use inclusive terminology for sex or gender. When citing research or health authorities, the terms for sex or gender from the source are used. In other instances, “male”/“man” refers to a person identified as male at birth, and “female”/“woman” refers to a person identified as female at birth. People may identify with differentgender or gendersthan those assigned at birth.
Terminology
Verywell Health prefers to use inclusive terminology for sex or gender. When citing research or health authorities, the terms for sex or gender from the source are used. In other instances, “male”/“man” refers to a person identified as male at birth, and “female”/“woman” refers to a person identified as female at birth. People may identify with differentgender or gendersthan those assigned at birth.
Age: Hormonal Changes and Lifestyle
Sexual desireebbs and flows with age, regardless of sex or gender. The same neural and biochemical pathways exist for people of any sex.
People with ovaries go through alot of hormonal changes during their lifetime, frommenstruationto pregnancy tomenopause. Sexual desire is closely related to hormones (estrogen and testosterone), so it’s normal to see shifts around these phases.
Many females report an increase in sexual activity in their 30s. Sexual desire is individual, but according to some studies, women have the “highest” libido in their 30s.
Males may notice their sexual desire peak in their 20s and start to settle in their mid-30s when a natural decline in testosterone becomes more apparent in everyday life.
Age can also come with other health conditions, new medications, and injuries, all of which can reduce sexual desire in your 40s and beyond. But it’s not all about how old you are. A healthy lifestyle, mindset, and diet at any age can lead to a healthy libido.
Life Changes
Take note of life changes, big or small. Did you move? Start a job? Lose a job? Adopt a pet? Are you grieving a loss? A breakup? Are you a new parent? Is it a busy season at work? These life changes affect your stress levels and can impact your natural libido.
When stressed, the body goes into fight-or-flight mode, turning off “unnecessary” functions for immediate survival, like appetite and sexual desire.Among other functions, stress also reduces focus and energy levels, resulting in foggy and sluggish moods. This is not ideal for sexual arousal.
How to Lower Sex Drive: Tips for Men and Women
Medical Diagnoses or Surgery
Recent surgery, injury, chronic illness, or new medical diagnoses can lower your sex drive. The physical and psychological stress of medical issues can affect your body and relationship. Give yourself time to heal and rest.
Pain medications, like opioids, can decrease sexual desire. Other common medications, like hormonal birth control, reduce testosterone levels and can lead to lower libido.
Mental Health
Clinical depression and anxiety have been linked to a loss of sexual desire. One study shows that 62.5% of mild to moderately depressed males saw increased sexual dysfunction.Another study found that women think mental health is more important for their sexual desire than physical health.
Poor mental health can impact body image and confidence in the bedroom. It can cause sexual dysfunction or pain based on past trauma. Physiologically, depression and anxiety impact hormones, which play a significant role in a healthy sex drive.
Severalprescription medications,like antidepressants, canreduce your appetite for sex, too, especially if you’re starting them or changing the dosage.
Quality of Relationship
The frequency of sexdoes not define your relationship. If you and your partner are happy with the amount of sex you’re having, that’s all that matters. Some couples are evensex-freeand enjoy life together just the same.
Healthy communication, trust, care, and open dialogue will help you understand how certain areas of the relationship may be causing a loss of sexual closeness and how to repair them.
How to Increase Sex Drive: A Wide Range of Approaches
Once you’ve identified one or more underlying changes causing your libido to plummet, you can explore a range of approaches to increase it. Because sexual appetite has emotional, physical, biological, and social ties, it’s important to consider a holistic approach to treatment. Approaches can include the following:
No standard exists for a “normal” sex drive.Your baseline libido may naturally vary from that of your friends and others you may compare yourself to. A person can be satisfied with a libido that may seem higher or lower than that of others.
How Many Calories You Could Burn Having Sex?
Increasing or Enhancing Sex Drive for Females
Females looking to understand or increase their sex drive can also consider the following solutions:
Increasing or Enhancing Sex Drive for Males
Males experience stress and hormone fluctuations too. Testosterone, the main driver of sexual function and other male characteristics, such as facial hair, begins to decline around age 30. Here are some solutions to boost libido in men:
Summary
Life can be challenging, and you’re not going to be in the mood for sex all the time. Factors such as hormonal changes, stress-inducing events, medical conditions, medications, mental health challenges, and relationship quality can affect your libido.
People of all sexes experience highs and lows in their sex drive for a number of reasons. If you wish to improve your sex drive, it is good to look at a variety of ways to do so, and the solution will be different for each person.
Finding and sustaining your unique healthy libido includes taking care of your mental and physical health as well as the quality of your relationship.
18 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Calabrò RS, Cacciola A, Bruschetta D, et al.Neuroanatomy and function of human sexual behavior: a neglected or unknown issue?Brain Behav. 2019;9:e01389. doi:10.1002/brb3.1389Wieczorek LL, Chivers M, Koehn MA, DeBruine LM, Jones BC.Age effects on women’s and men’s dyadic and solitary sexual desire.Arch Sex Behav. 2022;51(8):3765-3789. doi:10.1007/s10508-022-02375-8Kelsey TW, Li LQ, Mitchell RT, Whelan A, Anderson RA, Wallace WH.A validated age-related normative model for male total testosterone shows increasing variance but no decline after age 40 years[published correction appears in PLoS One. 2015;10(2):e0117674].PLoS One. 2014;9(10):e109346. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0109346Dekker A, Matthiesen S, Cerwenka S, Otten M, Briken P.Health, sexual activity, and sexual satisfaction.Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2020;117(39):645-652. doi:10.3238/arztebl.2020.0645.Herman JP, McKlveen JM, Ghosal S, et al.Regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical stress response.Compr Physiol. 2016;6(2):603-21. doi:10.1002/cphy.c150015Burrows LJ, Basha M, Goldstein AT.The effects of hormonal contraceptives on female sexuality: a review.J Sex Med. 2012;9(9):2213-2223. doi:10.1111/j.1743-6109.2012.02848.xThakurdesai A, Sawant N.A prospective study on sexual dysfunctions in depressed males and the response to treatment.Indian Journal of Psychiatry. 2018;60(4):472. doi:10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_386_17Wang V, Depp CA, Ceglowski J, Thompson WK, Rock D, Jeste DV.Sexual health and function in later life: a population-based study of 606 older adults with a partner.The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 2015;23(3):227-233. doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2014.03.006.National Health Service Inform.Loss of libido.Healy D.Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction & other enduring sexual dysfunctions.Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci. 2019;29:e55. 2019;29. doi:10.1017/S2045796019000519MedlinePlus.Women and sexual problems.Stanton AM, Handy AB, Meston CM.The effects of exercise on sexual function in women.Sex Med Rev.2018;6:548–557. doi:10.1016/j.sxmr.2018.02.004Dording CM, Sangermano L.Female sexual dysfunction: natural and complementary treatments.Focus (Am Psychiatr Publ). 2018;16(1):19-23. doi:10.1176/appi.focus.20170049Allen K, Bennett JW.Tour of truffles: aromas, aphrodisiacs, adaptogens, and more.Mycobiology. 2021;49(3):201-212. doi:10.1080/12298093.2021.1936766Department of Health, State Government of Victoria, Australia.Libido.Koh K, Kim SS, Kim JS, et al.Relationship between alcohol consumption and testosterone deficiency according to facial llushes among middle-aged and older Korean men.Korean J Fam Med. 2022;43(6):381-387. doi:10.4082/kjfm.21.0173Allen MS, Tostes RC.Cigarette smoking and erectile dysfunction: an updated review with a focus on pathophysiology, e-cigarettes, and smoking cessation.Sexual Medicine Reviews. 2023;11(1):61-73. doi:10.1093/sxmrev/qeac007Barbonetti A, D’Andrea S, Francavilla S.Testosterone replacement therapy.Andrology. 2020;8(6):1551-1566. doi:10.1111/andr.12774
18 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Calabrò RS, Cacciola A, Bruschetta D, et al.Neuroanatomy and function of human sexual behavior: a neglected or unknown issue?Brain Behav. 2019;9:e01389. doi:10.1002/brb3.1389Wieczorek LL, Chivers M, Koehn MA, DeBruine LM, Jones BC.Age effects on women’s and men’s dyadic and solitary sexual desire.Arch Sex Behav. 2022;51(8):3765-3789. doi:10.1007/s10508-022-02375-8Kelsey TW, Li LQ, Mitchell RT, Whelan A, Anderson RA, Wallace WH.A validated age-related normative model for male total testosterone shows increasing variance but no decline after age 40 years[published correction appears in PLoS One. 2015;10(2):e0117674].PLoS One. 2014;9(10):e109346. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0109346Dekker A, Matthiesen S, Cerwenka S, Otten M, Briken P.Health, sexual activity, and sexual satisfaction.Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2020;117(39):645-652. doi:10.3238/arztebl.2020.0645.Herman JP, McKlveen JM, Ghosal S, et al.Regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical stress response.Compr Physiol. 2016;6(2):603-21. doi:10.1002/cphy.c150015Burrows LJ, Basha M, Goldstein AT.The effects of hormonal contraceptives on female sexuality: a review.J Sex Med. 2012;9(9):2213-2223. doi:10.1111/j.1743-6109.2012.02848.xThakurdesai A, Sawant N.A prospective study on sexual dysfunctions in depressed males and the response to treatment.Indian Journal of Psychiatry. 2018;60(4):472. doi:10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_386_17Wang V, Depp CA, Ceglowski J, Thompson WK, Rock D, Jeste DV.Sexual health and function in later life: a population-based study of 606 older adults with a partner.The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 2015;23(3):227-233. doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2014.03.006.National Health Service Inform.Loss of libido.Healy D.Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction & other enduring sexual dysfunctions.Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci. 2019;29:e55. 2019;29. doi:10.1017/S2045796019000519MedlinePlus.Women and sexual problems.Stanton AM, Handy AB, Meston CM.The effects of exercise on sexual function in women.Sex Med Rev.2018;6:548–557. doi:10.1016/j.sxmr.2018.02.004Dording CM, Sangermano L.Female sexual dysfunction: natural and complementary treatments.Focus (Am Psychiatr Publ). 2018;16(1):19-23. doi:10.1176/appi.focus.20170049Allen K, Bennett JW.Tour of truffles: aromas, aphrodisiacs, adaptogens, and more.Mycobiology. 2021;49(3):201-212. doi:10.1080/12298093.2021.1936766Department of Health, State Government of Victoria, Australia.Libido.Koh K, Kim SS, Kim JS, et al.Relationship between alcohol consumption and testosterone deficiency according to facial llushes among middle-aged and older Korean men.Korean J Fam Med. 2022;43(6):381-387. doi:10.4082/kjfm.21.0173Allen MS, Tostes RC.Cigarette smoking and erectile dysfunction: an updated review with a focus on pathophysiology, e-cigarettes, and smoking cessation.Sexual Medicine Reviews. 2023;11(1):61-73. doi:10.1093/sxmrev/qeac007Barbonetti A, D’Andrea S, Francavilla S.Testosterone replacement therapy.Andrology. 2020;8(6):1551-1566. doi:10.1111/andr.12774
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Calabrò RS, Cacciola A, Bruschetta D, et al.Neuroanatomy and function of human sexual behavior: a neglected or unknown issue?Brain Behav. 2019;9:e01389. doi:10.1002/brb3.1389Wieczorek LL, Chivers M, Koehn MA, DeBruine LM, Jones BC.Age effects on women’s and men’s dyadic and solitary sexual desire.Arch Sex Behav. 2022;51(8):3765-3789. doi:10.1007/s10508-022-02375-8Kelsey TW, Li LQ, Mitchell RT, Whelan A, Anderson RA, Wallace WH.A validated age-related normative model for male total testosterone shows increasing variance but no decline after age 40 years[published correction appears in PLoS One. 2015;10(2):e0117674].PLoS One. 2014;9(10):e109346. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0109346Dekker A, Matthiesen S, Cerwenka S, Otten M, Briken P.Health, sexual activity, and sexual satisfaction.Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2020;117(39):645-652. doi:10.3238/arztebl.2020.0645.Herman JP, McKlveen JM, Ghosal S, et al.Regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical stress response.Compr Physiol. 2016;6(2):603-21. doi:10.1002/cphy.c150015Burrows LJ, Basha M, Goldstein AT.The effects of hormonal contraceptives on female sexuality: a review.J Sex Med. 2012;9(9):2213-2223. doi:10.1111/j.1743-6109.2012.02848.xThakurdesai A, Sawant N.A prospective study on sexual dysfunctions in depressed males and the response to treatment.Indian Journal of Psychiatry. 2018;60(4):472. doi:10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_386_17Wang V, Depp CA, Ceglowski J, Thompson WK, Rock D, Jeste DV.Sexual health and function in later life: a population-based study of 606 older adults with a partner.The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 2015;23(3):227-233. doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2014.03.006.National Health Service Inform.Loss of libido.Healy D.Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction & other enduring sexual dysfunctions.Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci. 2019;29:e55. 2019;29. doi:10.1017/S2045796019000519MedlinePlus.Women and sexual problems.Stanton AM, Handy AB, Meston CM.The effects of exercise on sexual function in women.Sex Med Rev.2018;6:548–557. doi:10.1016/j.sxmr.2018.02.004Dording CM, Sangermano L.Female sexual dysfunction: natural and complementary treatments.Focus (Am Psychiatr Publ). 2018;16(1):19-23. doi:10.1176/appi.focus.20170049Allen K, Bennett JW.Tour of truffles: aromas, aphrodisiacs, adaptogens, and more.Mycobiology. 2021;49(3):201-212. doi:10.1080/12298093.2021.1936766Department of Health, State Government of Victoria, Australia.Libido.Koh K, Kim SS, Kim JS, et al.Relationship between alcohol consumption and testosterone deficiency according to facial llushes among middle-aged and older Korean men.Korean J Fam Med. 2022;43(6):381-387. doi:10.4082/kjfm.21.0173Allen MS, Tostes RC.Cigarette smoking and erectile dysfunction: an updated review with a focus on pathophysiology, e-cigarettes, and smoking cessation.Sexual Medicine Reviews. 2023;11(1):61-73. doi:10.1093/sxmrev/qeac007Barbonetti A, D’Andrea S, Francavilla S.Testosterone replacement therapy.Andrology. 2020;8(6):1551-1566. doi:10.1111/andr.12774
Calabrò RS, Cacciola A, Bruschetta D, et al.Neuroanatomy and function of human sexual behavior: a neglected or unknown issue?Brain Behav. 2019;9:e01389. doi:10.1002/brb3.1389
Wieczorek LL, Chivers M, Koehn MA, DeBruine LM, Jones BC.Age effects on women’s and men’s dyadic and solitary sexual desire.Arch Sex Behav. 2022;51(8):3765-3789. doi:10.1007/s10508-022-02375-8
Kelsey TW, Li LQ, Mitchell RT, Whelan A, Anderson RA, Wallace WH.A validated age-related normative model for male total testosterone shows increasing variance but no decline after age 40 years[published correction appears in PLoS One. 2015;10(2):e0117674].PLoS One. 2014;9(10):e109346. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0109346
Dekker A, Matthiesen S, Cerwenka S, Otten M, Briken P.Health, sexual activity, and sexual satisfaction.Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2020;117(39):645-652. doi:10.3238/arztebl.2020.0645.
Herman JP, McKlveen JM, Ghosal S, et al.Regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical stress response.Compr Physiol. 2016;6(2):603-21. doi:10.1002/cphy.c150015
Burrows LJ, Basha M, Goldstein AT.The effects of hormonal contraceptives on female sexuality: a review.J Sex Med. 2012;9(9):2213-2223. doi:10.1111/j.1743-6109.2012.02848.x
Thakurdesai A, Sawant N.A prospective study on sexual dysfunctions in depressed males and the response to treatment.Indian Journal of Psychiatry. 2018;60(4):472. doi:10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_386_17
Wang V, Depp CA, Ceglowski J, Thompson WK, Rock D, Jeste DV.Sexual health and function in later life: a population-based study of 606 older adults with a partner.The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 2015;23(3):227-233. doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2014.03.006.
National Health Service Inform.Loss of libido.
Healy D.Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction & other enduring sexual dysfunctions.Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci. 2019;29:e55. 2019;29. doi:10.1017/S2045796019000519
MedlinePlus.Women and sexual problems.
Stanton AM, Handy AB, Meston CM.The effects of exercise on sexual function in women.Sex Med Rev.2018;6:548–557. doi:10.1016/j.sxmr.2018.02.004
Dording CM, Sangermano L.Female sexual dysfunction: natural and complementary treatments.Focus (Am Psychiatr Publ). 2018;16(1):19-23. doi:10.1176/appi.focus.20170049
Allen K, Bennett JW.Tour of truffles: aromas, aphrodisiacs, adaptogens, and more.Mycobiology. 2021;49(3):201-212. doi:10.1080/12298093.2021.1936766
Department of Health, State Government of Victoria, Australia.Libido.
Koh K, Kim SS, Kim JS, et al.Relationship between alcohol consumption and testosterone deficiency according to facial llushes among middle-aged and older Korean men.Korean J Fam Med. 2022;43(6):381-387. doi:10.4082/kjfm.21.0173
Allen MS, Tostes RC.Cigarette smoking and erectile dysfunction: an updated review with a focus on pathophysiology, e-cigarettes, and smoking cessation.Sexual Medicine Reviews. 2023;11(1):61-73. doi:10.1093/sxmrev/qeac007
Barbonetti A, D’Andrea S, Francavilla S.Testosterone replacement therapy.Andrology. 2020;8(6):1551-1566. doi:10.1111/andr.12774
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