Sex, and the desire to have sex, is completely chemical!
The human race would never have survived without procreation and procreation, sex, would not happen without testosterone. If adult humans did not have testosterone, we wouldn’t be motivated to have sex, prioritize sex, bond to a spouse, or had the ability (erectile function) to procreate without testosterone!
Both women and men would not have sex if they have low or no testosterone.
Every day in the office I talk to women and men about their sex lives. They may come to me because they have the symptoms of Testosterone Deficiency, but we generally get to one of their symptoms which is lack of sex drive. Their self-reported lack of sexual desire, lack of ability to orgasm, to bond to their partner. My patients have lost their testosterone and their sexuality due to age, medical treatments or removal of their ovaries.
When I tell my new patients that they will be sexually “whole” again they are skeptical. I don’t blame them. It is difficult to understand how one hormone can actually make us sexual, create our feeling of being sexual beings, motivate our sexual activity and motivate us to find a sexual partner is difficult to believe. Most of these people had already given up the hope of ever being sexually active again. Many of their relationships had been shattered, their own self confidence and their sexual identity have disappeared.
This situation is very depressing when you think that the majority of doctors have no idea that these symptoms are from a loss of testosterone. However, it makes my job so very satisfying to meet with them four months later and see them glow with happiness. They tell me they have their desire back as well as their orgasms, erectile function and endorphins that make them feel satisfied and happy. Most of the times their love relationships have been healed with the reawakening of their sexual energy.
Sex is hormonal…one hormone…Testosterone!
One of the facts about sex that we rarely are taught in medical school is that sex and the desire to have sex is completely chemical! The mechanism is similar to our ability to feel happiness because of concentrations of serotonin and dopamine, and the ability to concentrate because of adequate epinephrine and norepinephrine in the brain. Human qualities we chalk up to permanent parts of our personality are really dependent on our neurotransmitters and sex hormones. Just think, we my view a person as happy and congenial, or sexually stimulating, or energetic and creative, but those personality traits could change completely if the hormonal environment in their body changes!
Therefore, the basic qualities we often use to judge another person’s “personality” or “desirability” may not be permanent traits at all, but reflections of hormone and neurotransmitter levels in the brain.
Testosterone is necessary for human sexuality, however…
Sexuality is more than adequate testosterone blood levels; however, testosterone is the fuel that makes sex possible.
You can view testosterone is the fuel for your “car”. You may drive a Pinto, a VW, or a Maserati or Mercedes, but if there is no fuel then the cars don’t go anywhere. When we put fuel in a car, how fast it goes, and the quality of the ride is depended on the car itself. Think of testosterone as the fuel and your genetic blueprint in association with your health determine what kind of sex derive and performance you will achieve when you get testosterone replacement. In other words, if you were very sexual when you were 35, with adequate testosterone replacement you will recover the same level of sex drive.
Once we have a healthy level of testosterone then our basic need is fulfilled, and our genetic programming, our health, our partner, and our acquired view of ourselves as a sexual human is variable. Some patients have written themselves off as a lost cause when it comes to sexual response, but testosterone replacement changes their future.
April came to me because she was in her 40s and she was experiencing the deficiency symptoms of testosterone. Her main concern was arthritis, sleeplessness, depression and …“Oh by the way, sex is abhorrent to me”. She then revealed her “secret”. “I have never had much of a sex drive, and I have never had an orgasm! However now it makes me nauseated and anxious to even think about having sex with my husband. I doubt that will change when we replace testosterone, but I just wanted you to know.”
After reassuring her that her sex drive would come back and it would be more robust than she experienced throughout her young life, I did admit that I could not guarantee that she would become orgasmic. Primary anorgasmia is multifactorial—it can be caused by a lack of testosterone genetically, or control issues, or a history of sexual abuse, anatomy and neurologic issues. The complexity of the orgasmic process in men and women is described in the book, “Orgasm” by Bevely Whipple and Dr Komasaric. I did give April hope because she had no other risk factors that would prevent testosterone pellets from rekindling her sex drive.
3 ½ months later April appeared at her appointment with me as a glowing younger version of herself. The first thing she relayed was spoken in a whisper, “I know what an orgasm is! I can have orgasms now and it is wonderful!”
Humans are all individual in their testosterone production and in their cellular sensitivity to the hormone. Basic genetic sexual desire is inherited and may be modified by lifestyle, diet, exercise etc. Therefore, some men and women genetically don’t produce much testosterone, or the receptors on their cells are resistant. Insensitive testosterone receptor sites result in a person who has a normal blood level of testosterone but seems “less sexual” than the average young person. Of course, increasing testosterone levels can increase that symptom even if they are resistant.
Humans are most sexual when our testosterone is highest and our receptors are sensitive, between the ages of 12 and mid- twenties. Our sex drive and testosterone start to drop after age 30.
In April’s case, when she compared herself to other girls her own age, she felt less sexual. As her testosterone naturally decreased with age, her lack of sex drive was more severe and more apparent.
She was very happy to have a healthy sex drive after her testosterone pellets brought her to a young healthy blood level of free-testosterone similar to average 20-40 year olds.
My second example of what happens to sex drive when testosterone declines. This is my experience with living without testosterone. I underwent a total hysterectomy for endometriosis at age 47, my testosterone had already started to drop (by symptomatology) but when all testosterone production ceased by removal of my ovaries, my life seemed to stop. Removal of the ovaries leaves women without Estradiol, testosterone or Progesterone.
Without my sex hormones, I no longer felt feminine, sexual, attractive or confident. I gained a lot of weight fast…had fatigue and muscle and joint pain, but the most devastating change was the total change in my personality and sexual energy.
Let me digress to explain sexual energy. We as humans are essentially energy within a human body. We have emotional energy, compassionate energy and mental energy, but the strongest energy that we possess is our sexual energy. Sexual energy makes us feel wanted, and wanting. It creates motivation for everything, not just for sex. It makes us want to socialize and bond to people of both sexes. Without it we lose all that and we see no need to have a partner, friends, or participate in activities, and we are happy to be isolated and non-productive. We no longer attract others, and we don’t produce the “aroma” of attraction-pheromones. If you want to see people without sexual energy, go to any nursing home or assisted living….it is a huge downer…the sexual energy is gone in everyone! That is one of the things aging without testosterone does to a human being.
When I experienced this early, surgically, I became an “old person”….I was irritable, unhappy, depressed and I didn’t want to have anything to do with my husband. I literally came home one day and asked him why he was still in our home…I said I didn’t need him anymore!
Thankfully it was shortly after that that I was introduced to my mentor Gino Tutera who had been replacing testosterone in pellet form to women for over a decade (in 2002). He treated me and then trained me, and I got my sexual exergy and everything else back! Today I feel better than I did at 45,46, and 47. I am currently 71 and a half. What a difference one hormone, Testosterone, can make!
If you think aging “naturally”, without replacing your missing hormones is a good plan for you, then plan on being transformed into an old crotchety, irritable, sick, unmotivated lonely person for the second half of your life!
You don’t have to live like that…make a choice to save yourself from testosterone deficiency and get your life back with testosterone pellets!
This Health cast was written and presented by Dr. Kathy Maupin, M.D., Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Expert and Author. www.BioBalanceHealth.com • (314) 993-0963. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel and please check “ Like “. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at BioBalanceHealth.
