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Check your symptoms15 Surprisingly Common Causes of Low Sex Drive in Young Women
June 12, 2021
Are you a young woman wondering about your sexual life and why you have a low sex drive?
In this post, we learn some of the common causes of low sex drive or low libido in young women.
They are quite different, so it’s important to know which may apply to you and what you can do about them.
Your libido or sex drive may be something you take for granted.
However, a low sex drive means a reduced sexual drive or interest in sex.
A lack of interest in sex can lead to problems in a relationship – But it could also be caused by relationship problems, as we will see shortly, or it could be a sign of an underlying medical problem.
Although it’s pretty common, affecting up to 15% of women aged 18-44 years, it’s also not a very easy problem to share with other people.
For example, I once saw a patient (let’s call her Angela) who came to the clinic for a medical review.
We had a detailed chat about different things for several minutes during the consultation.
By the end, I thought we’d covered all her concerns, but she picked up her bag, turned to the door and paused.
Then she said – “Dr, can I ask you – is there any treatment for low sex drive?“
That’s when I realised – this is what the visit was really all about, and she’s finally picked up the courage to ask – right at the end of our meeting!
I’ll tell you more about what happened with Angela later on, but let’s look at some features of sex drive in a woman from her late teens to her early 40s.
A woman’s sex drive can naturally go up and down depending on what is going on in her life at the time.
Your sex drive is determined by different factors:
How could you tell or suspect you have a low sex drive?
You may:
But how do we measure whether sex drive is low or high?
Well, we have no way of actually measuring sex drive or libido.
Therefore, some people may have what we call ‘zero sex drive’ and feel perfectly happy.
While others are concerned that their sex drive is a problem.
What causes concern is if there is no sexual desire when it is expected or reduced from what it used to be.
And now, let’s look at the CAUSES of low libido.
We can describe them in 4 main categories: Relationship, Physical, Psychological and Hormone-related problems.
One of the first things to consider is whether your relationship is contributing to your low sex drive.
For many women, sexual intimacy naturally progresses from an emotional connection. So, let’s look at the issues that could affect this:
Here is a list of some common examples:
If you suspect your low sex drive may be related to your tablets, check the medication leaflet to see if it is listed as a possible side effect.
If it is, have a chat with your doctor to consider an alternative instead of abruptly stopping the drug, which could affect the treatment of that condition.
So far, we’ve seen the impact of relationship and physical problems – the psychological category includes a wide range of issues such as:
So hopefully, looking at these different causes emphasises how important it is to address why you have a low sex drive and not assume the same reason applies to every woman.
However, common medical conditions where this happens unrelated to menopause are:
As you can see, there’s quite a lengthy list of reasons why women can develop low sex drive symptoms.
But let’s go back to my patient, Angela. It turns out she’s been having a low sex drive for several months, affecting her marriage.
It started after she had a difficult birth when she’d developed Preeclampsia and needed a C-section.
Following that, she needed to stay on Blood pressure tablets, and even when they tried to have sex, things just were not the same.
We detected her low libido symptom was caused by her blood pressure tablets and switched them to a more suitable alternative.
Last I heard from her, things in the bedroom had been moving in the right direction.
So what can you do if you need to address a low sex drive problem?
For some of these cases, you might be able to make changes yourself simply by paying attention to your lifestyle habits, like cutting down on Alcohol or smoking; and making time in your busy schedule for you and your partner to reconnect uninterrupted.
If you have persistent relationship problems, you may need couples or relationship counselling to address and help work through the issues.
In some cases, you might need to speak to your doctor as Angela did, so we can look at your medication or consider physical or psychological causes that may be responsible.
If it’s a sexual problem, a sex therapist or counsellor can help explore any challenges or issues from previous experiences contributing to low libido.
That’s your pretty comprehensive look at more than 15 different causes of low sex drive in a young woman!
Let me know in the comments below if anyone jumps out to you or has any questions on the subject. Stay Well!
More Reading:
Reference
Editing by AskAwayHealth Team
Disclaimer
All AskAwayHealth articles are written by practising Medical Practitioners on a wide range of healthcare conditions to provide evidence-based guidance and to help promote quality healthcare.
The advice in our material is not meant to replace the management of your specific condition by a qualified healthcare practitioner.
To discuss your condition, please contact a health practitioner or reach us directly.
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