4 Reasons Women Experience a Lower Sexual Desire than Men
2015-05-19
It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that men are up for sex more than women. This can cause a problem for couples. It’s not that a woman doesn’t desire or care about sex. It can be quite the opposite, actually. However, women especially care about lovemaking in the context of a committed relationship. An assortment of factors can interrupt positive feelings a woman may have towards experiencing sex. Read on to learn of the four reasons you may not be having sex.
Physiological differences
These differences make it more challenging for a woman to want sex, become aroused during sex, and come to climax. It has been discovered by researchers that testosterone, which in previous days was considered a ‘male’ hormone, is what powers the male and female sex drives. On top of that…men have a whopping 10 to 20 times more testosterone than women. Additional hormonal factors may influence a woman’s fluctuation in sex drive over time.
Psychological reasons
Decreased sex drive can be a symptom that comes along with clinical depression, which women are significantly more likely to experience. Unfortunately, many antidepressants and other drugs used to treat depression lead to a decrease in libido and even prevent orgasms from being achievable. Sex is an important part of life, so it may be difficult to understand the benefit of a drug lifting depression, yet dampening a part of the human experience that can be so joyful. Another factor that may interfere with a woman’s sexual desire is past sexual trauma. Women are more likely to have been sexually abused and, even though they desire to be a pleasing lover, they might be experiencing deep fear and shame.
Body image
Women struggle with body image issues more than men, and this can dramatically affect their feelings about sexuality. Due to a lot of messages in media (magazines, TV, etc.) that give us unrealistic figures by which to compare our bodies, many women believe their bodies are never ‘perfect’ enough. Some women hear about ‘imperfections’ every day from their significant other, while other women may have very supportive partners who find them sexually attractive, but still despise their own bodies.
Lack of energy
It’s true–men do more housework these days–their share and sometimes more. Yet, studies show that women are still taking on more housework and childcare, overall, even when they have full-time jobs outside of the home. Dr. John Gottman, author of the book Why Marriages Succeed or Fail says, “Being the sole person in the marriage to clean the toilet is definitely not an aphrodisiac!” He has conducted extensive research on married couples and found that happier relationships and better sex lives were linked to couples where men did more housework and taking care of children. That sure is some research that needs to get into the heads of certain men!