“I want to have sex, but I just don’t feel like it most of the times!”, says Madhav Puri, a newly married market analyst who’s recently been promoted. “I am so tired by the time I come home, that I have no energy left to even stay awake, forget having sex!” says Kshama Puri, Madhav’s wife. These statements are quite normal, but coming from a newly married couple, they are bound to raise eyebrows! Why, you ask?
Well, to start with newly married couples are known to have a very active sex life! So why are Madhav and Kshama not having sex? Could it be because their sex drive has lowered and they don’t even know about it? With our modern day lifestyles, we are always running against the clock and find ourselves stressed and tired with lack of sleep! Maybe even the Puri’s are affected by this burnout…
I don’t feel like having sex, why?
Taking a deeper look in the Puri’s sexless lives, we understand that both of them have been victims of sex drive killers! These killers come in the form of many factors such as stress, tiredness due to long working hours sometimes even depression and anxiety!
“How can we identify these sex drive killers, so that we can get back to having sex?” asks the anxious couple. To help the Puri’s out, here’s a list of some very common sex drive killers that every couple needs to beware of!
Poor Personal Hygiene: Ask yourself, would you kiss a stinky mouth or be able to snuggle with someone who has dangerously smelly armpits? No right! Well, the same applies to you too; poor personal hygiene is one of the most obvious reasons for a lower sex drive in your partner or spouse!
Sex is intimate and foul smelling partners can be the ultimate turn off when you are in the mood for sex! To avoid this, both men and women should freshen up after coming home from work. Remember to use mouth wash if you haven’t eaten anything for a long time as your mouth is bound to smell bad, due to the bacteria at work, in your mouth. Similarly women and men should remember to shave or trim their pubic and armpit hair in order to avoid infections and accumulation of sweat which can lead to a foul smell later on.
Medical ailments: People suffering from Diabetes, thyroid or hormonal problems often report to having a low sex drive, this is mainly due to an under –active medical ailment from those mentioned above. With 40.9 million people suffering from diabetes in India, at the last count, diabetes in particular is turning out to be a giant sex drive killer. It is known to cause erectile dysfunction in men and leads to dryness in the vaginal area in women, making intercourse painful for them! Thyroid disorders also cause diminish one’s sex drive by lowering the androgen and testosterone levels in women and men respectively. However unlike diabetes, thyroid disorders when treated restore back the original sex drive.
Smoking and Drinking: While drinking is great for reducing one’s inhibitions regarding sex, it is harmful in the long run as it reduces one’s testosterone levels and helps in the buildup of Cortisol! Similarly smoking releases enzymes which lower your sex drive by constricting the blood flow to the sexual organs.
Stress: With our fast and hectic lifestyles we often find ourselves under tremendous stress! Tight deadlines, unruly colleagues, recession, the daily traffic, increasing prices all contribute to increasing our stress levels. High stress levels are one of the main reasons why like the Puri’s, many couples are suffering from a low sex drives. Whenever the body feels stressed out, it releases the stress hormone or Cortisol while reducing the levels of the sex hormones such as androgens and testosterone which directly leads to a drop in your sex drive!
Inadequate Sleep: Sleep disorders such as Sleep Apnea and snoring are responsible for depleting testosterone levels in men, which directly lead to a drop in the libido or sex drive of the individual. Insomnia also results in a drop in the sex drive of both men and women! Another reason why sleep disorders can lower your sex drive is because of the irritability, drowsiness and tiredness that plague individuals suffering from sleep disorders.
Medications: Certain medications such as birth control pills, anti-depressants and high blood pressure medicines cause a drop in the levels of androgens and testosterone. These medicines also tend to affect the erection, ejaculation and orgasm of the individual, causing a further drop in the desire to have sex, which leads to a low sex drive!
Negative Body Image: With magazines and television promoting flawless beauty through wafer thin female models and buffed up male models, people are going to have negative body image! Negative body image causes many couples to decline sex for the only reason that they fear ridicule or rejection due to their ‘un-perfect’ bodies. If either one of the partner suffers from a negative body image, it is bound to lower the couple’s sex drive!
Other than these mentioned factors, erectile dysfunction and Menopause are two of the most common sex drive killers worldwide! But now that the Puri’s know about these sex drive killers, we are sure that they’ll soon revive their sagging sex drive and enjoy their sex lives...
