For many women during their reproductive years, low libido can become an issue. As hormones ebb and flow throughout the cycle, different effects on the entire body may be felt. Sometimes the hormones are at an all-time low, and their effects are non-existent. Other times, some hormones may be at the ultimate high with effects to prove it.
Women most commonly think of their menstrual period as the beginning of their cycle. This is in fact not true; it marks the end of the cycle as no pregnancy has occurred. Once their bleeding has started, the new cycle can begin. This starts with hormones in the brain being released. Those hormones trigger other hormones that trigger still more that go to the ovaries to begin making eggs.
Recent studies have taken women with a self-proclaimed healthy libido and tested various levels of hormones throughout their cycle. Blood was drawn in three phases – preovulatory, ovulatory, and luteal. During the preovulatory or prefertile phase of the cycle, the hormone released is from the hypothalamus and is called gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). This hormone heads to the anterior pituitary to let it know when to start sending out its follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). This begins the ovaries’ creation of follicles, where the egg develops. As of yet, there is no cause for an increased sex drive, so during this time a low sex drive could be considered normal.
During the second phase of the menstrual cycle, one follicle becomes dominate over all the rest that have been attempting to develop due to the FSH and begins to secrete estrogen to ripen the egg further. Recent studies show that during this time there is also a rise in testosterone levels in the woman. With a ripe egg and hormones bursting at the seams, this is the time of the greatest level of libido.
Once the egg has been released, due to the production of yet another hormone called Luteinizing Hormone (LH), the levels of estrogen slowly lower while progesterone, released by the follicle now turned corpus luteum, begins to increase. After at most twenty-four hours, the egg dies if it was not fertilized, and the corpus luteum begins to disintegrate. Once it is withered and the progesterone is done being manufactured, the cycle is over and bleeding can once again commence. During this time, the libido may once again be low due to the lowering of estrogen and testosterone.
Studies are currently being undertaken to determine the extent of these hormones mid-phase on libido. Other factors do play a role in libido as well. These factors can include relationship status, general health, medications, and more. Hormone levels are not the end all of libido levels, but can provide a clue when deficiencies exist. For women with cycles longer than the average of 28 days, this information can provide comfort when it has been three weeks since the cyclic bleeding and no desire for intimacy has been apparent.