Is your sex drive slower than your partner’s drive? If so, this is an obstacle that can keep you up at night wondering what is wrong with you. There’s no “magic” number that you have to hit to satisfy your partner – every couple is different. Averages can be once a week for some couples and once a month for others.
A study of 20,000 couples found that the majority of couples have sex once or twice a month. Only 26% of couples have sex once a week.
Your sex drive may be slow, or your sex drive may be normal based on these figures.
But if you’re not as excited for intercourse as you have been in the past, you may be suffering from:
1. Anxiety Strikes Again
If you’ve had a bad experience in the bedroom before, you may be becoming anxious. A lot of people have anxiety, and worrying about your performance in the bedroom can quickly ruin the mood.
Anxiety can be caused by a bout of erectile dysfunction, even if the issue only occurred once.
You need to put expectations aside. Try to relax and stop thinking so much.
2. Exercising Too Much
Exercise is great for the libido, but when you go to the extreme, exercise has been shown to impact a person’s endocrine system. What does this mean? Studies suggest that the person who exercises too much will have lower testosterone levels.
The lower a person’s testosterone, the lower their sex drive will be.
Women can also suffer from lower estrogen levels due to over-exercise. Weakness and exhaustion can also follow.
3. Food or Drinks
Certain foods and drinks have been shown to diminish a person’s libido. Alcohol causes testosterone levels to fall and coffee can increase anxiety, which brings us back to the first point on our list.
Foods that you should be concerned with eating when you’re having trouble in the bedroom are:
- All-purpose flour
- Cheese
- Dairy
- Deli meat
- Edamame
- Flaxseed
- Fried foods
- Mint
- Shrimp
And that’s just the start. Your favorite foods may have a hormonal impact on your body, leading to trouble in the bedroom.
4. Unknown Thyroid Issues
Thyroid issues impact your metabolism due to the gland’s key role in producing metabolic-regulating hormones. If you have a thyroid issue, it may impact:
- Energy
- Mood
- Sex drive
Hypothyroidism is a major concern because it will lead to a slowing of the metabolism and reproductive organs, too. Adrenal glands are responsible for producing sex hormones, and if they’re slowed, this will lead to lower levels of testosterone or estrogen.
5. Phones Don’t Help
People in their twenties are having less sex. Phones may be to blame. One study found that millennials are twice as likely to not have sex in their early 20s compared to previous generations.
Why?
Experts believe that people spend time scrolling on their phones before bed rather than being intimate with their partners. In-person interaction is starting to decline, and it’s a major problem for a lot of couples.
Trying to put the phone down an hour or two before bed is a quick and easy way to allow time to be intimate.
You may also want to try sex toys.
