Dear Reader,
If your relationship is suffering due to low sex drive it might be your hormones that are to blame.
One of the first things I do with a new patient is check their hormone levels. They so often help explain why they feel the way they feel. And of course it’s different for a man than a woman.
A man needs higher levels of testosterone than a woman. And a woman needs estrogen (but not too much) and a man doesn’t. Here’s some examples of what can happen with an imbalance…
If you’re a man and you have too much estrogen and not enough testosterone it can cause you to have a flabby chest, lack of energy, constant fatigue, and a low sex drive.
If you are a woman and have too much estrogen and low progesterone and low testosterone you may have extra difficulty shedding those extra pounds, not to mention a low sex drive, hot flashes, night sweats and trouble sleeping.
The good news is there are ways to balance out your hormones naturally.
Here are some things I recommend to my patients.
- Reduce your intake of environmental estrogens. Make sure to cut out refined sugars, starchy carbohydrates like bread, pasta and potatoes. Eat grass-fed and hormone free meat. Drink only purified water. And always reheat food in glass containers. Heating plastic containers in the microwave causes estrogen mimicking chemicals to leech from the plastic into your food.
- Take diindolylmethane (DIM). It’s a compound found in cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli. It bonds with excess estrogens and gets them out of your body. I recommend women take 200mg once a day and men 400 mg.
- Take chaste berry (for women). It’s a natural hormone balancer. It helps regulate pituitary hormones which, in turn, balance your estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. Women should take one 300mg tablet per day.
- Take tribulus terrestris: Although very effective to boost testosterone in men, this herb appears to also gently increase testosterone in women with a confirmed deficiency. I recommend men take 250 mg a day & women 100 mg a day.
- Take Zinc: It is known to boost your testosterone levels. In one study, athletes who supplemented with zinc did not experience the testosterone depletion that athletes who didn’t take zinc experienced. I recommend both men and women take 100 mg per day.
Testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone are just some of the hormones that have an impact on your libido or relationship with your partner. There are others. There are hormones that actually alter your mood, such as dopamine and serotonin, also known as neurotransmitters. They act as chemical messengers that transmit nerve signals between nerve cells in the brain. They create “brain chemistry”. They make you feel a range of emotions…happy, sad, relaxed, excited, etc. And, how men and women use them is very different.
I recently met a very interesting expert at a conference who has very good insight about this very topic. His name is John Gray. You’ve probably heard about or read his very, successful book, Men are from Mars Women are from Venus.
He has put together a new program with which he shares natural solutions for optimizing brain chemistry for men and women. He gives some helpful tools and explains the nutrients that you need to balance health, happiness and lasting relationships. Click HERE to check it out.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
1 Brown GA, et al. “Effects of androstenedione-herbal supplementation on serum sex hormone concentrations in 30- to 59-year-old men.” Int J Vitam Nutr Res 2001; 71(5): 293-301