The dictionary definition of libido is “the energy of the sexual drive as a component of the life instinct.”
If you’ve been experiencing a lower sex drive, you might be feeling concern, or even guilt about how it’s affecting you and your relationship with your partner. Worse, it could be causing you to feel depressed and even feel a loss of a zest for life.
What’s more, you might also be suffering from erectile dysfunction, or E.D. Though this condition is not always connected to a lower libido, the two often co-exist.
A lower libido can be caused by medications, depression, chronic illness, or stress… but especially, the cause could be a low testosterone level – commonly known as Low T.
Low testosterone (hypogonadism) usually happens with age. But it can also affect younger men for various reasons. Testosterone, the male hormone that is essential for the development of strength, also boosts sex drive – or libido.
Virility vs. Vitality
Men of all ages are universally challenged by society and also themselves by varying degrees of “manliness.”
Remember, testosterone is the primary male sex hormone that plays a key role in the development of male reproductive tissues such as testes and prostate. As such, it promotes increased muscle and bone mass, and the growth of body hair. In addition, testosterone is involved in general health and well-being.
About 4 out of 10 men over age 45 have low testosterone. For men with low T levels, replacement therapy is a common solution to the problem.
Oral testosterone is available. However, some experts believe oral testosterone can have negative effects on the liver. Using other methods, such as skin patches, gels, orally disintegrating tablets, or injections, bypasses the liver and get testosterone into the blood directly.
Replacing Nature Naturally
Testosterone adapts to your body’s needs. Stay active. Your body gets the message that you need more of the testosterone hormone and will produce more.
- Walk briskly at least 10 to 20 minutes a day.
- Building strength with several sessions of weights or elastic bands each week.
- Work with a trainer to learn proper form so you don’t injure yourself.
The vast majority of prescription testosterone (cream, gel, injectable, patch, subcutaneous, etc.) is derived from plant sources such as soybeans and yams. Soybeans and yams are natural substances that are put through a chemical synthesis in a laboratory setting to derive the end product of testosterone.
When needed, testosterone restoration treatment affects every man differently. But most report improvement in energy level, sex drive, and quality of erections. Testosterone can increase bone density and muscle mass. Men report positive mood shifts after testosterone replacement.
“Karen Herbst, MD, PhD, an endocrinologist at University of California-San Diego, specializes in testosterone deficiency. She estimates about one in 10 men are ‘ecstatic’ about their response to testosterone therapy…” *
Studies have shown that testosterone replacement therapy may offer a wide range of benefits for men with hypogonadism, including improved libido, mood, cognition, muscle mass, bone density, and red blood cell production.
“It’s well established that testosterone by itself, for men with sexual dysfunction that includes erectile dysfunction, can improve erections in the majority of men who take it,” says Dr. Abraham Morgentaler,** an associate clinical professor of urology at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
* https://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/824046_2
