Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)

Loss of sexual desire is one of the most harmful symptoms of menopause, as it touches not only the physiological sphere, but has a great impact on relationship. Loss of libido is a common menopause ‘side effect’ that covers about 20 – 40 % or all women at the period of menopause. It is important to understand that such changes usually have complex reasons, like hormonal imbalance, psychological disorders and age-related changes.

If you want to manage with loss of libido, as well as other menopause symptoms, you should study the causes and potential remedies of this disorder. By understanding its origin you will be able to find appropriate solution to remove the source of the problem and return to a stable healthy lifestyle.

Loss of Libido in Details
Loss of libido is a complex disorder that relies on various psychological, physical and hormonal reasons. It has highly individual character, different for each woman.

Traditionally the term ‘libido’ is associated with sexual desire, describing the level of person’s sexual activity. In medical sense loss of libido is a disorder displaying in reduce of interest to sexual activity, lack of desire to have sex.

Women experiencing libido loss admit that they become less sensitive to sexual caress, they are not aroused or it takes too long to get aroused during sexual contact. Also they have no energy for sex, they lose the feeling of their own sexuality. When having sex, women with loss of libido experience vaginal dryness and painful feelings during intercourse.

Some women during menopause become unable to achieve orgasm or even arouse enough for sex. These symptoms are also associated with loss of libido, although such women didn’t lose the physiological ability to have sex. These symptoms mostly caused by hormonal imbalance and psychological problems.

Reasons of Loss of Libido
Loss of libido is one of menopause symptoms that occur mostly because of hormonal changes in female organism. Besides endocrine disorders, libido is very sensitive to various psychological problems, like stresses and conflicts, especially if they are caused by sexual partner.

Hormonal Aspects of Loss of Libido
As was said before, hormones are the root source of libido changes in female body. The imbalance of three main hormones levels can reduce the desire to have sex and ability to get sexual satisfaction.

Estrogen
Estrogen is a female hormone responsible for female sexual sensitivity and influencing on the process of vaginal lubrication output. It influences greatly on the normal state of vaginal tissue.

During menopause, female body produces less natural estrogen. As a result, it causes various unwanted symptoms like night sweats, vaginal dryness, irregular menstruation, and of course it has much impact on libido.

Progesterone
Progesterone hormone is acting in female organism in pair with estrogen. Any imbalance between these two hormones leads to various health problems, like irregular menstruation, lack of energy, constant tiredness. All these effects may cause loss of libido.

Androgens/ Testosterone
Androgens are naturally produced in less concentration within the age-related changes. The balance between estrogen and estrogen hormones (like testosterone) is very important to female organism, as only the normal levels of all hormones provide stable operation of reproductive, immune and circulatory systems. Less testosterone in female body can also mean the decreased sexual desires and discomfort during the sex.

Besides hormonal reasons, there are some other causes of loss of libido that also deserve attention if you want to get rid of this problem. There is a list of potential non-hormonal reasons of loss of libido.

What Else May Cause Loss of Libido?

For better convenience alternative causes are divided into three groups: physical, emotional and relational.

Physical causes include the following:
-Various pains during the sex

-Sexual dysfunction

-Using medicines with side-effect of decreased libido

-Surgery (hysterectomy)

-Vaginal dryness

-Diabetes and other chronic diseases

-Heart disorders

-Anemia

Emotional reasons usually include this:

-Stresses, depression

-Tiredness

-Changes self-appraisal due to weight problems and other visual changes

-Age concerns

-Conflicts

-Feel of anxiety and other psychological disorders

Relational reasons touch the following spheres:
-Conflicts with sexual partner

-The changes in intimate relationship

-Partings

-Changes in social status

-Other life changes

-Lack of communication with partner

-Changing the sexual partner or divorcing

-As a rule a combination of these causes may lead to loss of libido and problems in sexual sphere.

Therapy for Fighting The Loss of Libido
There is variety of available approaches for loss of libido treatment. Usually the choice of remedies is made according to the cause of the problem. If it is a psychological problem, you should take care of your emotions and try to normalize your state by relaxation practice, psychologist consultations, changing the lifestyle.

Correct your diet to exclude possible food impact on your libido, orient your ration to soy products, protein-comprising foods, magnesium sources like leafy greens, buckwheat etc. Also it will be useful to include liver, oysters, red meat and other products that contain zync.
Physical activity is also helpful for both physical and emotional causes of loss of libido. It is recommended to use aerobics, yoga practices, Kegel exercises to maintain your vaginal tone. Stretching is also helpful for improving body shape and tone.

Most of menopausal problems of loss of libido is directly connected with hormone changes that should be removed by using natural herbs that will help to adjust endocrine system to a normal state. The hormone problems can be solved by other therapies like chemical drugs or surgery, if they become too severe and don’t react on homeopathic treatment.

Menopause is a state of female organism when the menstruation cycle stops, it is a natural finish of childbearing age. The perimenopause is a pre-menopause period, during which your body meets the hormonal changes with various symptoms, individual at any separate case. The level of estrogen, as well as other hormones drops and this is attended by different reactions of the organism. Here is the list of possible menopause symptoms, some of them are common for almost all women, and some are unusual and rare.

Typical Symptoms of Menopause

Irregular Menstrual Cycle
As a rule, changing of the cycle length is the first sign of coming menopause. The cycle may differ from time to time from longer to shorter periods between menstruations.

Night Perspiring & Heat
The night sweats when you feel like in fever for a short periods of time are also typical for pre-menopause period. As a rule these flashes of heat are attended by high sweating. This symptom is experienced by 75% of women.

Frequent Mood Changes
Due to the decrease of estrogene and progesterone production during the perimenopause lots of women characterize their mood state as “highly emotional”. The periods of extreme nervousness are changed by constant sadness or even anxiety. The positive emotions like delight and happiness are also present, but in minority comparing with negative ones.

Headaches
During the menopause there can be frequent migraine attacks and headaches. The hormonal changes may reflect on vascular system, and these changes causes frequent headaches that can be difficult to overcome.

Insomnia
As we already told, menopause coming is accompanied with night sweats and raised emotional excitability. Both of these symptoms may cause another one – difficulties with falling asleep. Lots of women experience insomnia during menopause, frequent awakenings with no ability to fall asleep again.

Vaginal & Uretra Dryness
The estrogene hormone is responsible for the normal moisturing of vagina, as well as urinary tracts. As its production reduces, women may experience problems with raised dryness that cause discomfort and problems with urination.

Weight Changes
The menopause is accomplied with the slowdown of metabolism. The nutrients you intake may not assimilate completely in the organism. That is why it is a high probability of weight gain. Sport and dieting will help to prevent this.

Memory Changes
The changes of memory interfering the everyday activity is also a sign of menopause. Partial loss of memory like forgetting necessary words or some dates are quite normal within the age, but if you feel that this affects you very often and became much more frequent, it is a time to visit a doctor.

Tiredness
The menopause period is rather difficult in terms of vitality. Many women feel constant tiredness even when doing less than usually. It is a temporary side effect of estrogen lowering. If you feel constant tiredness during the long period (more than 2 month), you need to see a doctor to find out the nature of this state.

Decreased Sexual Activity
When coming to menopause many women feel less desires of having sex due to various reasons. Sometimes it is caused by hormonal disbalance, another problem is depressive state or stresses. If your sexual activity is constantly lessening or you don’t feel satisfaction during the sex and this is a problem for your relationship, consult a doctor. He may help you with this.

Harmful Symptoms of Menopause

You should consult a doctor if some of the following symptoms appeared:

Heavy or Frequent Bleeding
If during the periods you feel much heavier bleeding than usual, like changing tampons or pads more than once an hour during eight hours, such bleeding can be dangerous for your health and needs medical assistance. Its reason can be various tumors, uterine diseases and even cancer. It needs urgent medical aid.

High Blood Pressure
The blood pressure needs to be checked regularly. And if your pressure becomes more than 140/80, it causes numerous risks for heart and vascular system. This is medical problem that required qualified diagnostics and therapy.

Heart Palpitations
Irregular heartbeat can be a common symptom of menopause. But if it causes discomfort and bad feeling for you with anxiety and pain in chest, it requires doctor’s assistance. Perhaps it is not only the menopause symptoms, but the signs of heart attack or other health disorders. Anyway, it needs qualified look.

Depression
Feeling hopeless, sad and anxious for a prolonged period of time can be the signs of clinical depression. You do not need to suffer from it, as it is dangerous for your health. You should see a doctor and take appropriate treatment. The depression displays in different ways, individual for each case. But the general symptom is that you do not satisfied with your way of living, and this needs to be fixed up not to turn into psychosis.

Unusual Menopause Symptoms
Sometimes menopause causes very unusual things in your organism that can’t be defined as its direct symptoms. But the fact is that women react in different ways and hormonal problems can have unexpected side effects, including the following:

• Low blood pressure
• giddiness
• Tinnitus (Ringing of the ears)
• Asthma
• Muscles and Joints pains
• Nightmares
• Digestion problems
• Rapid hair fall
• Heartburn in mouth
• Offensive breath odor
• Body odor changes
• Various neurological symptoms like cramps or creepy gooseflesh, itching, raised skin, breasts sensivity, etc.

If you have some of the symptoms described above, consult a medic to define whether it is a menopause symptom or it has another nature.