Low Sex Drive
Is Saltpeter to Kill Sex Drive a Myth?
The power of sex on our collective imaginations means that people have concocted scores of myths about this fascinating topic. One that comes up time after time is the idea of using a substance to sup…
Advice on Lowering Libido Raises Ire
It really should not surprise anyone that discussions about sex often elicit strong emotions. From time to time, we hear from a person who wants advice on lowering libido. Often, this arises because t…
Will Testosterone Help Women Feel Strong and Sex…
If we say low testosterone, you might think of a TV ad starring a middle-aged man worried about "low T." But even though testosterone is the quintessential "male" hormone, women make it too. Could a p…
Show 1251: How Chemicals Are Threatening Our Hea…
Sperm counts have been falling for decades. In fact, they’re down 50 percent over the last four decades. Should we worry about young men’s health and fertility? How can we explain this trend? Thre…
Can Antidepressant (Paroxetine) Make Sex Exhaust…
So many couples struggle with their sex lives. The partners may have inherent differences in their sex drives that create tension or guilt and interfere with enjoyment. In other instances, medication …
Will Testosterone Shots Overcome Your Low Libido…
Some men report reduced interest in sex as they grow older. For a while, the most popular explanation was "low T." This made doctors nervous, since they feared that men who wouldn't actually benefit w…
New Guidelines for Treating Low Testosterone
Around the turn of the 21st century, drug companies started advertising testosterone on television. They implied that many men suffered from low testosterone and suggested that “low T” could be re…
What Can Woman Do About Lower Sex Drive from Flu…
Balancing the benefits and harms of medications can be quite a challenge. Doctors have known for decades that SSRI-type antidepressant drugs such as fluoxetine (Prozac) or paroxetine (Paxil) can affec…
How Testosterone Cream Could Revive Libido
Most people associate menopause with hot flashes. Fair enough, but millions of women going through this change of life complain of a drop in sex drive. Is there any way to restore libido after menopau…
Testosterone Enhances Libido and Improves Female…
How well does testosterone work to increase women's sex drive? Many people assume that androgens like testosterone are purely male hormones. Wrong! Women actually make more androgen than estrogen (Fer…
FDA Approved New Drug to Increase Sexual Desire
A lot of medications can interfere with libido, but relatively few increase sexual desire, especially in women. Four years ago (on August 18, 2015), the Food and Drug Administration approved a pill ca…
Prostate Drug Dutasteride Shrinks Prostate and P…
Dutasterice (Avodart) has a powerful effect on the prostate gland. The history of this medication and its chemical cousin finasteride (Proscar) is a medical mystery. It all started in the Dominican Re…
How Can a Man Tell if He Needs More Testosterone…
The FDA has been quite clear that it doesn't approve of routine prescribing of testosterone, even if men have low levels of this hormone. Here is the official word from the feds: "None of the FDA-appr…
Bupropion Helps With Mood, Sex and Quitting Smok…
Bupropion (Wellbutrin) was first approved by the FDA in 1985 to treat depression. It remains a totally unique antidepressant. There is no similar antidepressant on the market. Unlike SSRI and SNRI ant…
Show 1137: What Should You Know About Women̵…
Viagra became a household name almost as soon as the drug was introduced. Before that, though, few men were willing to talk about erectile dysfunction. When it comes to women’s sexual health, we see…
Mint Tea Lowers Her Sex Drive to Match His
What can a woman do when her sex drive is more powerful than her partner's? We have heard from innumerable women with this problem. Sex and desire are still sufficiently taboo topics that there are ve…
Dutasteride (Avodart) Sexual Side Effects Can Be…
Avodart was approved by the FDA in 2001 to treat symptoms of an enlarged prostate gland. Dutasteride (the generic name) inhibits an enzyme called 5 alpha reductase (5AR). This reduces the conversion o…
Will Drugs for Benign Prostate Hyperplasia (BPH)…
Millions of men are discovering that an enlarged prostate gland is negatively affecting the quality of their lives. But two popular prescription drugs designed to treat benign prostate hyperplasia (BP…
What Is the Trouble with Too Much Testosterone?
The FDA has just issued a stronger warning about the hazards of too much testosterone. The previous warning from January, 2014, told men that taking testosterone could put them at risk for heart attac…
Sex Problems Result from Tamsulosin for Urinatio…
When the prostate gland gets big, it can make it harder to urinate. Men with benign prostate hypertrophy (BPH) often complain that they have to get up three or four times a night to pee. Medications …
Prescription for Licorice Pills Was Almost Letha…
When most people think of licorice (or liquorice in the UK), they imagine candy such as licorice twists, Panda All Natural Soft Licorice, Twizzlers, Good & Plenty or Dutch Licorice Cats. But licor…
How to Improve Men’s Sex Drive Without Dru…
Italian researchers have found a way to improve male libido without drugs. Although popular stereotypes have pegged low libido primarily on women, many men also suffer from this problem. These scienti…
Testosterone Side Effects: How Scary Are They?
Treatment with the male hormone testosterone has been highly controversial for years. The FDA makes it clear that testosterone side effects are worrisome and physicians should NOT prescribe the hormo…
Is Flibanserin, the Female Sex Pill, A Big Fizzl…
An article published in JAMA Internal Medicine this week reports that the new female libido-enhancing drug flibanserin (Addyi) led to "one-half of an additional sexually satisfying encounter per month…
What Are the Pros and Cons of Testosterone Thera…
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been one of the most controversial and contentious treatments in medicine for decades. Now, TRT (testosterone replacement therapy) is following a similar trajecto…
Will Testosterone Turbocharge Your Sex Drive and…
A new federally-funded study about testosterone therapy published in the New England Journal of Medicine has created quite a stir. It seems that when testosterone gel (AndroGel) was given to men over …
Husband Seeking Ways to Lower Wife’s Libid…
Q. I am a male and I feel horrible that I can't match my wife's libido any more. We are both in our 30s, and my sex drive has decreased over time while her libido has drastically increased. I've been …
Anti-Anxiety Drug Causes Problems in the Bedroom
There are so many things that can interfere with a satisfying sex life that it sometimes amazes us. Many of these problems do have solutions, though, including one of the most common: an incompatibili…
Is It Safe to Use Testosterone to Boost Sex Driv…
When most people think about differences in sex drive between men and women, they automatically assume that men want sex a lot more than women. That is not always true. We have received an amazing num…
The Inside Story on the Female Sex Pill Flibanse…
There has been a great deal of excitement about the FDA's announcement that it has finally approved Addyi for women with low sex drive. Not surprisingly, this is the hot health story this week and the…
Sex Pill for Women Cracks Medical Taboo
The topic of women's sexuality has been taboo for centuries. Both men and women are often uncomfortable discussing female libido. Men's sexuality, on the other hand, has received a lot of attention. P…
FDA Panel Votes to Approve Flibanserin, the Firs…
The third try was the charm. In two previous presentations to the Food and Drug Administration the makers of flibanserin (Addyi) failed to pass muster. But on Thursday afternoon, June 4, 2015, a pane…
Statins Sap Sex Drive and Lower Testosterone
As visitors to this website know, statin-type cholesterol-lowering medicines remain among the most popular drugs in the pharmacy. Many cardiologists maintain that such medications are extremely safe, …
How Long Do Drug Side Effects Last? For Some, Pe…
When most physicians prescribe medications, they may not realize they could be in danger of violating the Hippocratic principle to first do no harm. That's because virtually every drug has the potenti…
Will Drug for Boosting Women’s Libido Pass…
An experimental drug for low libido in women may yet find a way to earn FDA approval. Flibanserin failed to receive a green light last year because the agency determined that the drug's effects were t…
What Can A Woman Do To Kill Her Sex Drive?
This article was written several years ago in response to a question from a visitor to this web site. Since that time we have received nearly 400 comments from other visitors to this page. Many are he…
Can DHEA Turbo-Charge Your Sex Life?
As we get older, we may find it more difficult to stay sexually active. Could the over-the-counter supplement DHEA be the answer to turbo-charge your sex life? Can a Supplement Turbo-Charge Your Sex L…
Older Women Are Still Interested in Sexual Satis…
People often assume that older people are not interested in sex. A new survey from Southern California suggests that is not true. 800 women between the ages 40 and 82 answered questions about their se…
Widows Disagree On Coping With Sexual Urges
Sex sure gets people excited. They fuss and fret about every aspect of this human behavior. Frequently readers of this column agonize over lack of sexual desire or inability to perform or enjoy the ex…
Drug Fails to Boost Female Libido
A medication that supposed to boost women's libido has flamed out. Flibanserin was hyped as the female Viagra because it was expected to improve sexual arousal. Researchers initially thought this comp…