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What is libido?

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Written by Lauren McKay

Lauren McKay

Lauren McKay is a writer and journalist with more than ten years of experience writing across a variety of topics. She is a passionate advocate for driving women’s health knowledge and is a trained yoga teacher. She earned a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow and currently lives in Scotland.

Fact checked by Jack Pearson, Medical Affairs Manager at Natural Cycles

Jack Pearson

Dr. Jack Pearson is a previously HCPC registered Embryologist with a PhD in reproductive medicine. Prior to joining Natural Cycles leading Medical Affairs, he worked for more than 10 years in a clinical setting working at some of the busiest fertility clinics in the UK. Today he spends most of his time working with experts at the world’s leading institutions to carry out important research with the vision to further the field of female health. He earned his PhD from the University of Sheffield specializing in Sperm Metabolism and currently lives in London.

Key takeaways:

  • Libido is another word for sex drive, which describes your desire for sex

  • There’s no such thing as a ‘normal’ libido – this can vary greatly from person to person, as well as within individuals, depending on various factors

  • If you feel that your sex drive is particularly high or low, there are treatments for this including therapy and medications

Another word for sex drive, the term ‘libido’ describes a person’s desire for sexual activity. There is no numeric measurement for libido, but it’s usually referred to as being low or high. There are many things that can affect our desire for sex, from biological reasons to social or psychological factors. In this post, we’re going to look at hormones, how they impact sexual desire, how libido changes throughout the cycle, plus the signs and causes of low libido.

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