HYPOACTIVE SEXUAL DESIRE DISORDER

It’s Sexual Health Awareness Month and I need to get a few tidbits out to my patients and viewers to raise awareness of some of the most common issues of female sexual dysfunction people with vaginas face!!!!

The most common form of sexual dysfunction impacting at least 40% of people with vaginas is hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) or low libido that is bothersome. HSDD can happen primarily/lifelong if has always existed or secondary or acquired if it has developed but previous desire was there.

Since the brain is a sexual organ, let's talk about how we are wired and how this impacts sexual response. The prefrontal cortex of the brain is your landscape and this is shaped by two modes–survival mode and reproductive mode. So there are hormones, neurotransmitters, sociocultural cues and environmental that can impact your prefontal cortex and place us in either excitation or inhibition mode . Excitation is the reproductive mode and survival is consistent with inhibition mode ( so think parasympathetic nervous system vs sympathetic –flight or fight response). And keep in mind that most all of sexual dysfunction treatments are aligned with the bio-psycho-social model of treating. Sometimes medications, sometimes working on relationships, sometimes seeking sex therapy but most of the time treatment is a combination of these.