Showing posts with label sex hormones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sex hormones. Show all posts





Sex hormones drive our libido and make us want to have sex with the people we find most attractive. But while biology has a simple, scientific explanation for that desire, the reality is that sex can be a complicated issue for many of us, young or old.


Sexual problems are very common, from couples dealing with one partner more sexually charged than the other to men having to handle erectile dysfunction, a problem that doesn’t only affect older men.


In young people, the sex hormones – oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone – are in full production so, sexually at least, young people are at their peak. However, age diminishes the production of those hormones and so it would seem obvious that sex drive would naturally also diminish.


Of course, we all know that’s not always the case – for some people, their sex drive remains constant throughout their life. And it’s learning to deal with both that and the other side, the partner who no longer feels the urge to mate at every opportunity, that presents the greatest challenge for couples.




The hormones are only part of the sexual jigsaw because without attraction and the desire to have sex with another person, your hormones will only get you so far. So when you’re in a long-term relationship that’s gone sexually stale, the question you should probably be asking is not “what’s up with my hormones?” but “do I still find my partner attractive?”


If the answer is yes, the solution is simple – stop fretting about sex and concentrate more on showing affection through cuddling and kissing. The sexual desire is likely to return naturally.


If the answer is no, you need to remind yourself of what else attracted to you to your mate, aside from the physical, and use that to rekindle your want.


While biology sees sexual desire in very simple terms, the fact is that sex is complicated and fascinating and almost impossible to explain. Perhaps trying to understand it is where humankind is going wrong!







Can Hormones Explain Everything About Sexual Desire?





Your morning cup of coffee may seem harmless, or even the wellness boost you need to get going in the morning. However, this and certain other foods may actually prevent you from getting going in other areas of your wellbeing; your sexual health. So which foods ruin your sex drive?


Firstly, cheese is often made with cow’s milk which has been treated with antibiotics and other growth hormones. Obviously, if you eat a lot of these dairy products, you’ll increase your body’s internal exposure to these toxins (hormones) in your body, and this will interfere with your natural hormone production. This includes your sex hormones, such as oestrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, and so, by accumulating these “bad” oestrogens from the environment and food, known as xenoestrogens, you could be contributing to your sexual dysfunction and even mood swings.


A New England Journal of Medicine study of more than 21,000 individuals found that sugar-sweetened beverages can interfere with your genes, which, in turn, affects your weight and increases your for diabetes. Fizzy drinks can also lead to dental cavities, obesity, dehydration, and bone loss, which are all health issues that result in poor libido. While we’re on beverages, if you’re a habitual coffee drinker, you could be harming your adrenal glands. These glands produce certain stress hormones, including your sex hormones, and so damage to your adrenal glands can affect your sex drive over time.




The sodium and artificial additives in canned foods could raise your blood pressure, which will diminish the blood flow to your sexual organs. When you’re aroused, you need adequate blood flow to ensure that your sexual organs function effectively during the act of sex. And if you’re cooking these foods in oil, you’ve found a terrible double whammy. If you’re trying to conceive, poor quality oils, such as canola and other processed vegetable oils, can cause free radicals in your body. The oxidatitive stress this can cause may affect your reproductive system and ability to conceive, and so eliminating these kinds of oils can go a long way to increase your chances of having a baby.







Are Your Favourite Foods Ruining Your Sex Drive?

New research has shown that male sex hormones could be responsible for some cases of cancer-female/">breast cancer. Scientists in the United States say that they have now designed drugs that will block male sex hormones or androgens, in order to help fight cancer-female/">breast cancer. A team at the University of Colorado discovered that a lot of breast cancers have androgen receptors on the surface of them, and that male hormones such as testosterone help to fuel the growth of tumors.


Drugs that block these androgen receptors could offer a whole new way to fight the disease, improving wellness and wellbeing of cancer sufferers all over the world. Clinical trials are now planned in order to test this theory.


The team has found that as much as three quarters of cases of cancer-female/">breast cancer have these androgen receptor, and therefore might benefit from this type of therapy. The research for this is still at an early stage, but it does look promising, as this type of treatment is already used to tackle prostate cancer.


It is already known that some types of breast cancers’ growth is fueled by the female sex hormones, such as oestrogen and progesterone, and Tamoxifen is a widely-used cancer-female/">breast cancer medication, which blocks the oestrogen receptors and stops them from fueling the growth of tumors.


Scientists are now interested to see how this principle could work when blocking androgens from encouraging proteins to attach to the surface of cancer-female/">breast cancer. If this proved to be a success, the armourery against cancer-female/">breast cancer could be quite significant, improving the survival rates for the disease and improving the long term outcome for those who contract the disease. For example, patients who have a relapse whilst on Tamoxifen may have androgen receptors rather than female sex hormone receptors, and so would benefit from a slightly different type of treatment.



Breast Cancer Could be Caused by The Male Sex Hormones