Driving a healthy sex life

A healthy sex life is an important part of a relationship. Learn how to manage it through these 4 helpful tips.

1. Manage your stress

Most individuals require a happy state of mind to have a healthy sex drive. Stress, anger, resentment at your partner often derails a healthy sexual relationship. Being proactive about managing your stress, talking about your feelings with your partner or sometimes even a therapist may be key to getting your sex life back on track.

Energy or the lack of it is also often the most common reason why people are put off sex. This usually comes about as a result of reduced hours of sleep, stress from family and work life, poor diet and lack of exercise, frequent travel and less often from hormonal changes. Practice good work and sleep hygiene, having downtime from your electronic gadgets. Finding time to meditate or exercise is also vital to improving your sex life. Manage your schedule such that you get to spend enough time with your partner. A healthy sex life is part of a healthy, happy, engaged relationship.

2. Accept changes in your body

A poor body image makes one feel unattractive and sex is often pushed aside due to insecurities about one’s own body. This can be as a result of a long battle with body dysmorphic issues, slowly putting on weight with age or changes due to pregnancy and childbirth.

Learning to accept the changes as part of the battle scars that we accumulate through life may be as important as getting sufficient information from a doctor who may be able to help with your symptoms. Getting onto a healthy diet and exercising could also help give you a stronger and more attractive body. A better diet and exercise also helps to manage stress better, increasing energy levels and also optimize your hormones in a way that is likely to improve your sex drive.

Certain changes after sex and childbirth such as urinary stress incontinence or vaginal laxity giving rise to reduced sexual pleasure can also be dealt with either through a good dose of Kegel’s exercise. More recently, minimally invasive laser therapy have been developed that can help provide a quicker and more effective solution.

3. Learn about the pros and cons of contraception

Worrying about unwanted pregnancies can often disrupt an otherwise healthy sex life. A discussion with your partner and doctor about an appropriate form of contraception will help bring assurance.

Hormonal change can also disrupt sexual drive. Being on the oral contraceptive pill can reduce active testosterone and reduce libido.

4. Embrace menopause

As a woman gets closer to the menopause, reduction in estrogen levels can also reduce sex drive. Menopause results in a large drop in estrogen levels. This is commonly associated with other bodily changes such as changes in body shape, reduction in vaginal lubrication, urinary incontinence or urinary frequency, disrupted sleep and poor energy, mood swings and hot flushes.

These changes affect how a woman interacts with her family and in particular her partner and sex often suffers as a result. Hormonal declines can reduce sexual desire and replacing them can revive sexual desire. Hormone replacement therapy has in recent times received a bad reputation due to fears about breast cancer. However in women who have many symptoms related to the menopause, using a low dose of bioidentical hormones often presents greater benefits than risks. Lasers and non-hormonal pessaries offer non-hormonal options for patients who cannot or do not want to consider hormonal therapy.