If you think you’re the only person experiencing sexual diffi culties in your forties, a quick fl ip through the television channels will convince you otherwise. Commercials for sexual performanceenhancing pills and supplements, once slightly scandalous, are now positively ubiquitous. And these drugs are big business – according to ABC News, the market for virility medications top $5 billion in annual sales to tens of millions of men.
Dr. Edward Griffi n, internal medicine clinical associate professor at LSU Health Shreveport, isn’t surprised. He reports seeing an increasing number of sexual problems in healthy individuals. The problem, he said, often isn’t within our bodies but rather our minds.
“Parents in their 40s and 50s – they are pulled in fi ve different directions at once. They’re trying to do 27 hours’ worth of stuff in a 24-hour day, along with time for themselves, time for their spouse. It’s a problem with pressure and trying to multitask their way through life.
“I’ve always been of the opinion that you treat the cause of the symptoms, not just cover them up,” Griffi n said. To explain the problem with giving a healthy person a prescription for a sexual enhancement drug, he uses the analogy of giving a prescription for cough syrup to a person who has pneumonia. The symptom may be gone, but the problem lingers.
If you’re experiencing sexual problems, a visit to your doctor is the right place to start, Griffi n said. But make sure he or she has all the information needed to make a correct diagnosis. “Even if the physician doesn’t ask, volunteer the amount of stress you’re under,” he advised.
In such cases, medications, prescription or otherwise, are usually unnecessary. Instead, a lifestyle shift will often do the trick.
“Make margin in your life,” Griffi n said. “Set time aside to decompress and relax. Find time to spend with your spouse. Don’t give yourself a reason to take medications.”
For some patients, though, medications can actually be the problem. “Patients take medications that affect their sex drive,” Griffi n said and cited beta blockers, taken for heart disease, as an example.
Griffi n said some diseases – diabetes and vascular disease, for instance – can produce sexual problems. “Those two can lead to loss of impotence in males and loss of libido in both males and females. Diabetes does it through a multiplicity of pathways,” he said. “If you have loss of libido after 40, it’s worth looking into certain types of diseases.”
Due to the fact that those diseases (among others) as well as the medications often prescribed for them lead to sexual problems, Griffi n said a holistic approach is best. “Libido and sex drive is a multifactorial pathway,” he said. “If you’re diabetic, get your diabetes under good control. If you’re hypertensive, have you tried a low-salt diet, exercise and weight loss? Take care of your diseases without medication, if you can.”
Bad habits can also stand in the way of a satisfying sex life. Quitting smoking has the potential to improve your sex life as well as your cardiovascular health. “We know that cigarettes cause atherosclerosis,” Griffi n said. Atherosclerosis is a condition in which a buildup of fats and cholesterol in and on the artery walls restricts the fl ow of blood, and smoking and nicotine use are one of the main causes. It can lead to erectile dysfunction in men and reduced blood fl ow to the vagina in women, making sex less pleasurable.
Excessive alcohol, as well, can affect a person’s sex drive in a number of ways.
Griffi n recommends keeping alcohol consumption to no more than seven drinks per week.
Age doesn’t have to interfere with intimacy. Sexual changes and health problems may prevent challenges, but making time for yourself and your spouse in addition to adopting a healthy lifestyle are a recipe for continued sexual health and enjoyment.
– Kelly Phelan Powell
DID YOU KNOW?
Bad habits can also stand in the way of a satisfying sex life. Quitting smoking has the potential to improve your sex life as well as your cardiovascular health.
Excessive alcohol, as well, can affect a person’s sex drive in a number of ways.
