The Truth About Female Libido
Female sexual energy is just about the most powerful force on this earth.
But elusive and mysterious, it does not seem to be thriving in our contemporary world. In fact, studies suggest that somewhere between 43 and 52% of women are struggling with a chronic disconnection from libido.
And no matter where accuracy lies, this range is far too high.
The internet is inundated with claims about how to tap women into their sexual selves, offering a litany of solutions: sex therapy, embodiment techniques, breast massage, self-pleasure protocols, rethinking sex, or leaving one partner for another. And products: yoni eggs, lubricants, and about a million variations of vibrators. And so many of these strategies are really helpful tools along the path of igniting and expanding female sexual energy, but they fail to acknowledge something really important and incredibly simple:
Hormones and women’s libido.
Hormones are the chemicals that drive libido, arousal, and pleasure. If they’re out of balance, you can do all the things and try all the products and you’re still going to struggle with your sex drive. In fact, the single most important thing we can learn from a chronic lack of libido is that our hormones need some loving attention (regulating).
Our hormones are responsible for so many physiological processes, like the health of menstrual cycles, female fertility, moods, mental acuity, energy levels, and sleep quality. So addressing the imbalances and nurturing hormone health can dramatically improve the quality of our lives, far beyond the benefit of reviving libido.
What hormones impact libido?
Testosterone is critical here. But this one is tricky because if we have too much testosterone we experience things like weight gain, excess hair, PCOS, acne, and irritability. So we need enough, but not too much.
We also need adequate estradiol. But again, not too much, or we get bloated, moody, breast tenderness, even migraines. (We also might get all this if we don’t make enough progesterone to balance the estrogen out.)
And all this sounds so complicated.
How can we possibly know which hormones we need more of, and which we need less of, and adjust the amounts to our own ideal?
Well, fortunately, we don’t have to, because our bodies are designed to find balance, vitality, and healing when we give them the right tools to do so.
So when we feel disconnected from our sexual selves and want to awaken libido, we can start by offering our body some support in recalibrating hormones, and revitalizing sexual energy.
Herbs (and wisdom) for hormone balance
Women have turned to herbs throughout our human history to do exactly that, and they’re shown by contemporary science to work directly on the endocrine system (including the hypothalamus and pituitary) to regulate hormonal output.
A few of these herbs for hormones include Shitavari, Mitchella, and Vitex, Ashwaganda, red raspberry leaf, and Lady’s Mantle.
Other herbs are pointedly connected to libido, like Muira Puama, Tribulus, Epimedium, and Maca.
Women have taken cues from their bodies about what they need and supported themselves in keeping hormones balanced and desire alive for millennia, but we’ve thoroughly disconnected from this knowledge in the contemporary Western world.
It’s time we (re)learn some of this ancient wisdom, and return to it. Your libido will thank you.
