Inhibited Sexual Desire: Causes, Factors and Treatment Options

Inhibited Sexual Desire (ISD) is a medical disorder that is indicated by only a single symptom, which is low sexual desire. An individual with this disorder rarely engages in sexual-related activities. Such individuals do not respond or initiate sexual overtures. They hardly meet the sexual demands of their partners. ISD is a common problem among couples, causing many to break up.

However, there are effective treatment techniques for ISD that can help individuals boost their sexual desire. It is crucial to note that ISD can be a secondary or primary condition. This distinction is important for your treatment purposes. It becomes a primary condition if an individual has never developed a sexual desire. Secondary ISD results when an individual had a normal sexual desire when starting a relationship but later became disinterested.

So, what is ISD?

Also referred to as hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), inhibited sexual desire refers to the loss of sexual interest. It is characterized by the absence of desire for sexual activities or sexual fantasies. It is a persistent absence of physical desire for sex, failure to completely indulge in sexual activities or lack of sexual fantasies or thoughts. This condition can also be termed a relationship issue that helps guide psychological or medical treatment.

There are also some cases whereby individuals suffer situational ISD. This results when an individual desires to engage in sexual activities with others but not with their partner. On the other hand, general ISD implies that an individual with this condition does not desire to have sex with anyone. There are several major life changes that can contribute to a loss of sexual desire. They include work-life imbalance, menopause, psychological or physical disability, partner changes, and pregnancy.

Causes of ISD

ISD can be caused by a broad range of factors. These factors include:

1. Conflicts: conflicts usually create emotional separateness and less sexual intimacy, making it difficult to experience enjoyable sex. This happens more often among couples who mostly choose not to resolve unfinished issues, thereby decreasing sex drive.
2. Toxic communication: Toxic communication is a serious problem that can result in less sexual desire. The occurrence of this element is fueled by discontentment and temper. It is potentially the major factor through which the connection of affection can be destroyed, along with the urge to engage in sexual activities. Effective communication is necessity in attaining mutual understanding; however, its absence can cause sexual arousal problems.
3. Abusive relationships: Violence can cause an individual to develop disorders like panic, phobia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression, affecting their sexual relationship and function. This lowers their sexual desire.
4. Criticism: Continuous and unfavorable criticism, especially in the bedroom, creates unhealthy feelings and sparks relationship insecurities. Sexual criticism can result from past trauma or shame, a fear of criticism, or the need to reclaim authority that has been lost elsewhere. Such criticism results in lowered sexual desire.
5. Breach of trust (infidelity): Cheating on a person makes them feel completely heartbroken, embarrassed, angry, and betrayed. This makes individuals develop a low sexual desire for their cheating partners. Moreover, if you cheat on your partner, you might start feeling stressed or guilty. These emotional hang-ups can negatively affect your sexual desire.
6. Lack of emotional connection: If you start to feel less emotionally connected to your partner, this can lower your sexual desire towards them. When there is no emotional connection between couples, this brings feelings of deprivation, isolation, rejection, and insecurity, making one lose sexual desire.
7. Painful intercourse: If you experience pain during sex, you are more likely to have a reduced sex desire. Painful intercourse causes sexual discomfort, making an individual less likely to enjoy sex.
8. Erectile dysfunction: Erectile dysfunction causes disruptions during sex, significantly contributing to low sex drive.
9. Pregnancy and breastfeeding: During lactation, prolactin levels increase while estrogen levels decrease, resulting in inadequate vaginal lubrication and dyspareunia. Oxytocin release and low androgen during this period lower one’s sexual drive.
10. Stress: Our hormones drive our sex lives under normal circumstances. Testosterone, progesterone, and estrogen naturally lower or raise our sexual pleasure and drive. However, when under stress, the adrenal hormone cortisol overpowers sex hormones, killing one’s sex drive.
11. Use/overuse of alcohol and drugs: Consuming alcohol and drugs excessively can result in detrimental physical issues in the bedroom. It tends to decrease dyspareunia, vaginal lubrication, and sexual stimulation and impede one from reaching orgasm. These damaging impacts kill one’s sex drive.
12. Chronic illness: Chronic illnesses often disrupt the sexual response cycle, mainly affecting the arousal and desire phases. For instance, when you are diagnosed with diabetes, you are often advised to make some life changes. These changes can negatively impact your body image and opinion concerning yourself being a sexual being.
13. Pain and fatigue: Constant fatigue, stiffness, and pain contribute to reduced sexual drive due to the pain itself or mood disorders that result from this.
14. Side effects of medicines: Medicines’ side effects tend to interfere as well as complicate sexual encounters. Some of the side effects from medications that cause this include dysphoria and blockage of testosterone or dopamine.
15. Hormonal changes: Changes in the hormone estrogen among women results in dyspareunia, which decreases their sex drive. Notably, HGH deficiency can cause erectile dysfunction and inhibited libido, affecting your sexual life. Do you often ask yourself how to get legal HGH? To get legal HGH online, you need to find a company that can sell you HGH injections and be watchful for scammers and other alternatives that cause damaging side effects.
16. Low testosterone: When an individual’s testosterone levels decrease, their sexual desire also decreases. Yet, incorporating a high-quality best tongkat ali supplement can potentially support natural testosterone production and enhance libido.
17. Menopause: When you reach menopause, the estrogen hormone reduces significantly. This significant change reduces your sexual function, lowering sexual desire and making it difficult to be aroused.
18. High blood pressure: High blood pressure causes men to have ejaculation issues and affects their sexual desire. In addition, it causes decreased blood flow to the genitals, affecting women’s sexual desire, vaginal lubrication, arousal, and orgasm.
19. Cancer: Cancer treatments’ side effects can lower a person’s libido. Radiotherapy done in the pelvic area tends to damage nerves and blood vessels, affecting sexual function. Chemotherapy can permanently affect your sexual desire.
20. Coronary heart disease: The psychological and physical manifestations of coronary heart disease can decrease your interest in sex.
21. Sexually transmitted diseases: Sexually transmitted diseases can damage one’s seminal vesicles, testes, epididymis, and urethra, affecting their sexual function. These diseases lead to pain during sex, which in turn interferes with sexual stimulation.
22. Neurological issues: When neurological changes happen, it could influence the way your brain is working in terms of sexual impulse sensing, arousal, and even the decrease in sexual drive levels or engorgement.
23. Diabetes: Low libido or diminished sexual drive is a grave difficulty that is disproportionately faced by adults living with the disease of diabetes. Insufficiently treated and managed diabetes has the potential to reduce libido among women and men.
24. Arthritis: Tiredness associated with arthritis may consequently affect one’s sexual drive. This illness causes joint pain, which makes it difficult for the patient to proceed with their daily sexual activities in a normal motion.

Treatment

Depending on the extent of your problem, there are diverse treatment approaches doctors may prescribe. These options can include both psychotherapy and medication therapies. They are:

• Sex therapy: Sex therapy, which is a type of counseling, is one of the main treatment approaches for ISD. Couples will commonly seek marriage counseling prior to discussing the sexual side of their relationship in order to improve their nonsexual relationship. Empathy and affection training during this therapy allows couples to acquire and perfect communication skills, enhancing connection. As a strategy based on scientific evidence, sex therapy successfully treats sexual dysfunction.  Try out https://www.vellabio.com/, a Science-backed sexcare. Products clinically-proven to support female pleasure.
• Hormone therapy: During hormone therapy, you will be given prescribed medications that are focused on relieving genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM) symptoms. Such medications can aid in making the initiation of erotic contacts less complicated. Most importantly, acquiring sexual skills that make you more confident when sexually active can contribute to the rise of your sexual desire.
• Lifestyle changes: Undergoing different lifestyle changes, reducing alcohol and drug intake, and going for exercises can help you to get back your sexual drive. Another factor that is worth mentioning is that the control of illnesses such as coronary heart disease or diabetes can contribute to the treatment of low libido.

In conclusion, a reduced sex drive among couples is widespread and leads to many issues in their intimate life. This reason is linked to a multitude of factors, which usually create and exacerbate the condition. Fortunately, whatever the degree of the problem, several treatment choices are available that can help restore your sexual desire. Hence, if you feel you have a low or inhibited sex drive, do not hesitate to seek treatment. Talk to your doctor today and know the most appropriate treatment option for your condition.