It’s estimated that 30-40 percent of people around the globe experience a lack of interest in sex for at least almost a year in just about any given year. The reason why for low libido are complex and have huge variations from stress along with other emotional difficulties to physical problems, including erection dysfunction.
A lot of people do not seek help for chronic low libido, which will be unfortunate because regular sex with a committed partner cannot be underestimated as an issue for reducing stress, improving self-esteem, and encouraging feelings of closeness and connecting between partners.
Healthier sex life can provide for an extended, healthier, and, most would agree, more fulfilling life, however, many are missing out on this very primal pleasure.
10 Drugs That May Cause Low Libido
Oftentimes low libido relates to your lifestyle and therefore includes any medications you are taking. Many medications can interfere with your sexual drive, like the 10 that follow.
Thinking about the widespread utilization of a majority of these, it is likely that medication use is the number one cause of low libido among men and women. If you’re taking one of these brilliant and now have experienced a drop in your libido, consult with a natural health care practitioner about drug-free alternatives.
Most of the drugs below are used for conditions that are better treated using non-drug methods.
1. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) Antidepressants
Sexual dysfunction is a frequent side effect of antidepressants, including the SSRIs (Prozac, Zoloft, etc.) which can be often used as a first-line treatment option for depression. Relating to a written report within the Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience
“Sexual dysfunction occurs through several brain pathways involving increases in serotonin (5-HT), reduction in dopamine (DA), and suppression of nitric oxide synthase. Improves in a cortico-limbic 5-HT lead to decreased sexual desire, ejaculation, and orgasm.
Consequently, it is really not astonishing that particular serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI)-caused sexual dysfunction happens in 30%–80% of patients and is a primary reason for treatment discontinuation.”
2. Tricyclic Antidepressants
Tricyclic antidepressants are much less widely used compared to the newer SSRIs, nonetheless, they are still prescribed both for depression and nerve pain. Like SSRIs, tricyclic antidepressants will also be associated with decreased libido.
3. Birth Control Pills
About 15 percent of women taking oral contraceptives report a decline in libido, likely because they lower amounts of sex hormones, including testosterone. One study also found seven times the libido-killing sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) was present in women who took oral contraceptives when compared with women who never used the pill.
Despite the fact that SHBG levels declined in females who had stopped taking the pill, they still remained three to four times greater than these people were in females without any history of using oral contraceptives, which suggests oral contraceptives may kill a woman’s libido when it comes to long-term.
4. Proscar
Proscar belongs to a type of drug named 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors, that are used to take care of enlarged prostate. Your prostate gland contains an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase, that changes the male hormone testosterone to different androgen known as dihydrotestosterone (DHT).
This class of drugs inhibits 5-alpha-reductase, thereby blocking the conversion of testosterone DHT. As a result, they could help to actually shrink your prostate, however, they come with significant risks, certainly one of that will be a lower libido from the lower testosterone.
5. Baldness Drug Propecia
Propecia is an identical drug to Proscar but is typically used at a lower dose to avoid hair thinning in men. The drug works by reducing DHT, the essential potent male hormone this is certainly associated with shrinking hair, by blocking the enzyme 5-alpha reductase.
It has been connected to not merely a decreased curiosity about sex but in inclusion to complete-blown impotence. BBC reports used one story of a 26-year-old who used Propecia for hair loss. He stopped using the drug as he noticed a reduced interest in sex, then a few weeks later became impotent.
Even with 6 months of testosterone therapy, his sexual health was not restored, along with his physician suggesting a penile implant as a remedy. Lots of men have discovered that the sexual side effects try not go away once the drug is stopped.
6. Antihistamines
Antihistamines, particularly Benadryl and Chlor-Trimeton, are also linked to a short-term lack of libido. When the medication is cleared from your body your sex drive should go back again to normal, however, if you are taking these medications often, such as for allergy treatment, it might pose a longer-term problem for your sex life.
7. Anti-Seizure Drugs
Carbamazepine (Tegretol) is often used to avoid seizures, which it does by preventing impulses from traveling along with nerve cells. Because it dampens nerve impulses, it might probably also reduce pleasurable sensations produced by sexual contact.
Reduced sexual desire is common among Tegretol users. One study found, for instance, that epileptic men taking carbamazepine had alterations in hormonal levels, altered semen quality, increased erection dysfunction, and reduced frequency of sexual activity.
8. Opioids
Widely prescribed opioid painkillers (Vicodin, Oxycontin, Percocet, etc.) have been making headlines because of their addictive potential, however, they also lower testosterone levels, that might, in turn, decrease your libido.
9. Beta Blockers
Tens of Americans take beta-blockers to reduce their blood circulation pressure, and these medications, too, may decrease libido. Even eye drops containing the beta blocker Timolol (for the treatment of glaucoma) may impact your sexual drive. Within the greater part of cases, drugs are not needed to reverse hypertension.
10. Benzodiazepines
There is certainly proof to encourage that anti-anxiety medications such as Xanax adversely impact sexual performance, including reducing your sexual interest.
If you’re taking some of the medications above, maybe you are lured to add another to your regimen to take care of your low libido, or bypass it altogether with a drug to take care of erectile dysfunction (ED) (for example. Viagra or Alternative like VigRX).
For beginners, Viagra does nothing straight to enhance your libido or even the undeniable fact that many cases of ED are undoubtedly emotionally based. Your brain and nervous system control your sex glands and genitals, and also this is just why they even control your sexual interest, as well as orgasms.
There are lots of similarities between men and women in regards to desire; contrary to everyday opinion, for instance, visual images trigger sexual interest in both sexes. Likewise, anxiety, defensiveness, fear, and failure of communication are destructive psychological forces that can take a heavy toll on your own libido, whether you’re a person or a woman, by acting as roadblocks to desire.
