Lower Sex Drive in Women After Menopause

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Dr. Joshua Vogel with Carolina Ob-Gyn, a division of Wilmington Health Associates. And I'd like to talk to you today about lower sex drive after menopause. Obviously, this is a very common problem for a lot of women. There are a few, call them, lucky women out there for whom this does not occur, but more typical is a natural decreasing sex drive as we age. In fact, this begins to occur well before menopause. Sex peak drive really occurring around ages 20 or 30, and then steadily declines as we go through our 40s and 50s and older. The primary causes of this are, obviously, changes in your body's hormone levels. This is a very common and not a disease state. It is an expectation. Other things that are happening are normal changes in your body. As we age, we have less energy overall. Our interests change and evolve to a more mature relationship. And often, as we get older and we find that holding each other, being together, reading books together is equally sexually satisfying as actually having intercourse. So this is a normal occurrence. One should expect it. One should not feel bad about it. It doesn't mean that one has to accept it. One can certainly do things to maintain a healthy sex lifestyle. But be careful not to judge yourself based on Hollywood and the movies and leading men and ladies because that is really not the typical. This has been a discussion of declining sex drive in the menopause."