How Stress Impacts Libido and Sexual Function in Both Men and Women

If you’ve ever been deeply stressed, you may have noticed that sexual desire is the furthest thing from your mind. Over long periods of time, chronic stress can take a large toll on your sex life. Stress affects the body in many ways, and sexual arousal is typically one of the first things to go. If you’ve been struggling with low libido, it may be worth considering whether everyday stress is playing a role. Here’s what to know about how stress affects a healthy sex life and how you can find treatment with the help of our intimate health experts at Tideline Center for Health & Aesthetics.

What Does Stress Do to the Body?

Stress is a natural response to situations where you feel threatened or overwhelmed, either mentally or physically (or both). These situations trigger something called the fight-or-flight response, a mechanism in the sympathetic nervous system. When the fight-or-flight response engages, it floods the body with stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones play a key role in keeping you alive when in danger, and they have a number of effects on the body, such as increasing heart rate, elevating blood pressure, tensing muscles, suppressing the immune system, and disrupting digestion. Although most of the time your body doesn’t face real external threats to its safety, stress can produce a similar response, especially when the stressor remains over long periods of time.

Stress and Sex: How It Affects Sex Drive

When your body experiences a stress response, it pays less attention to functions that are unnecessary to your immediate survival. This often includes the reproductive system and sex hormones, and it happens in people of any gender. This means you might experience fewer feelings of sexual desire or even sexual dysfunction when you try and engage in sexual activity. Along with finding it more difficult to experience psychological arousal, stress-induced changes in your circulation can make it more difficult to experience physical arousal.

However, stress can have secondary effects on your sex drive, too. Stress affects other things like sleep patterns, energy levels, mood, and mental health, which can also affect your sexual health. For example, if stress is making you feel tired, you likely won’t have the energy to engage in sexual activity. Or you may feel too foggy or depressed to fully enjoy it. For men, erectile dysfunction can come into play, possibly causing more stress. In short, stress can directly affect sex drive, but it can also affect the bodily systems that support it.

What Treatments Are Available?

If you’re struggling with every day or prolonged stress, it’s important to reach out for help. Chronic stress is not normal or something to push through or live with. A mental health professional can use talk therapy to help you find ways to manage or reduce stress with relaxation techniques and breathing exercises, and help you uncover areas where you can get rid of some of your stressors. These can be invaluable in relieving some of the psychological effects of stress. However, an intimate health provider can help you specifically deal with the effects of stress that interfere with your relationships and enjoyment of sexual activity, especially if sexual abuse is a factor in your stress.

Tools like open and honest communication can help strengthen your partnerships and create a better environment for intimacy, and stress management techniques can help you engage in a better sexual response, especially if you’re struggling with performance anxiety. An intimate health provider can help you understand which areas negatively impact libido and what steps you can take to get around sexual difficulties.

Low Libido Treatment in Long Island, NY

Managing stress can be challenging, especially in our fast-paced and productivity-driven society. To meet with our intimate health providers and learn more about ways to treat low libido brought on by stress, contact our office today. We conveniently serve the greater Long Island and Queens, NY areas.