Hormonal Underpinnings of the Variation in Sexual Desire, Arousal and Activity Throughout the Menstrual Cycle – A Multifaceted Approach

Libido Boosting Functional Foods

“…Several million women have a female sexual arousal disorder, but arousal is not synonymous with desire, so this finding is limited to libido. Hormonal problems, like a lack of luteinizing hormone or androgenic hormones, may cause low libido, but these ideas aren't agreed upon [22].…”

“…Sex drives are linked to the reproductive system, but no system operates independently. If men are experiencing low sex drive, start with these main culprits and see if they can find the root cause [22].…”

“…Balance must be maintained; if not, a partner may seek to get their needs met elsewhere by emotionally reconnecting with another man, which can lead to an affair. Both people in a relationship are responsible for keeping it going, so pay attention to what the partner needs from the spouse [20][21][22].…”

Sexual attraction to visual sexual stimuli in association with steroid hormones across menstrual cycles and fertility treatment

“…Sexual motivation has been reported to be increased by steroid hormones during fertile cycle phases (Roney, 2018;reviewed in Jones et al, 2019). Women's sexual desire peaks in the periovulatory phase of the menstrual cycle (Arslan et al, 2021;Bullivant et al, 2004;Marcinkowska et al, 2022;Roney and Simmons, 2013;Stern et al, 2021; van Stern et al, 2019;reviewed in Cappelletti andWallen, 2016, andMotta-Mena andPuts, 2017).…”

“…However, the literature about steroid hormonal effects on sexual motivation and sexual desire is mixed: Positive effects of estradiol and testosterone on sexual desire were reported by studies with peri-and postmenopausal women, which found that declining estradiol levels led to decreases in sexual desire in perimenopausal women (Dennerstein et al, 2002), that estradiol therapies increased sexual desire in postmenopausal women (reviewed in Cappelletti and Wallen, 2016), and which resulted in an evidence-based indication for testosterone therapy for postmenopausal women with HSDD (Davis et al, 2019;Islam et al, 2019). In premenopausal women, however, the effect of steroid hormones on sexual desire is to date unclear: while some studies reported a positive effect of estradiol, a negative effect of progesterone, and a null effect of testosterone on sexual desire (Jones et al, 2018;Marcinkowska et al, 2022;Roney and Simmons, 2013), others found that androgens were positively associated with sexual desire (Wåhlin-Jacobsen et al, 2015;Zheng et al, 2020), and further studies showed null associations between steroid hormones and sexual desire (Davis et al, 2005;Shirazi et al, 2019;Stern et al, 2021). The mixed findings are presumably due to differences in methods.…”