Investigating on Libido

So, recalling from my previous blog entry in regards to whether taking birth control pills will decrease sexual drive in women, if you beautiful ladies out there want some hard, cold evidence about libido and birth control pills, www.pubmed.com would be a great starting point to begin our investigation.

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 Poor lady is on her birth control pills and wondering if her pills are affecting her sexual drive. Hope she feels better soon 

So let’s take a look at pubmed.com and see what studies have been conducted on birth control pills and libido. Ooo.. 360 results by typing birth control pills and libido in the search engine and WOOHOO and 33 have full text!

For this week’s blog, I will be discussing about a study I found on hormonal contraception on mood and sexual interest among adolescents. I think we can relate more to a study of adolescents since on my part at least, the confusion I had about birth control pills and its effects started when I was an adolescent experimenting with birth control pills. 

The video you are about to see is just a brief overview of birth control pill and its POSSIBLE effects on lowering sexual drive in women. As the beginning of the video it says, "this video represents the views of individual presenters and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Psychetruth Channel." So be cautious when you ladies are taking in the information from this video :) 

Past Studies on the Birth Control Pill and its Influence on Mood and Sexual Interest

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Not surprisingly, numerous studies have been conducted on the effects of hormonal contraceptives. However, results varied amongst the studies. Some studies demonstrated a negative effect, some a positive effect, and some that demonstrated no effect (Ott & Shew & Ofner & Tu & Fortenberry, 2008, p. 606).

Separate studies have been conducted on adults, some on older adolescent participants, usually between the ages of 16 or 18, however no studies have been conducted to determine whether there are differences amongst results in adolescents and adults in terms of mood changes and changes in sexual interest with the use of hormonal contraceptives.

Adolescence is a time characterized by moodiness. Let’s just admit it, we were all moody when we were adolescents. It is important to examine whether hormonal contraceptives play a role in affecting mood changes in adolescents or whether we are just very moody and emotional creatures in general, regardless of the use of hormonal contraceptives.  

Other than mood changes, past studies have shown contradictory results regarding sexual interest or sexual desire when hormonal contraceptives were used. Little is also known about the impact of hormonal contraception on sexual interest among adolescents (Ott et al, 2008, p. 607).

Therefore, in this study, young women of the ages 14 to 17 were recruited from three primary care adolescent clinics in a medium size Midwestern U.S. city. This was a longitudinal study in which the young, beautiful women (just like you guys) were followed for up to 41 months. In a broader sense, the study was not only conducted on the associations of hormonal contraceptive use with mood and sexual interest, the study also examined the development of sexual behaviors and STI amongst these adolescence (Ott et al, 2008, p. 607).

To keep things brief, the objectives of the study included: 1) to test for differences in positive mood, negative mood and sexual interest by hormonal contraceptive method, 2) To test for differences in mood variability (or change over time) by hormonal contraceptive method and 3) to examine whether stopping or starting hormonal contraceptive was associated with mood and sexual interest changes.

In the study, participants completed face to face interviews quarterly and two 12 week periods of daily diary collection per year. Participants kept a diary throughout the study and were required to record any mood changes whether positive or negative and changes in sexual interest while being on hormonal contraceptive.

Something very exciting that I think you guys would want to know, participants received $2.00 for each completed diary as well as a bonus for completion of 80% of scheduled diaries (Oh MY!!! Why wasn’t I invited to this study?!) (Ott et al, 2008, p. 609).

The exact procedures and measures used to calculate the results I would greatly recommend you ladies to read the full article available on pubmed.com instead.

So ready for the results? :)

The study concluded that there are changes in mood amongst adolescent hormonal contraceptive users and that the changes differed from those anticipated for adult users (Ott et al, 2008, p. 605).

During diary periods characterized by stable use of hormonal contraceptives, participants reported significantly higher mean weekly positive mood compared to periods of non-use or initiating hormonal contraceptive use. Participants also reported significantly lower mean weekly negative mood compared to periods of non-use or initiating hormonal contraceptive use (Ott et al, 2008, p. 611).

However, there was no association between hormonal contraceptive use and sexual interest (Ott et al, 2008, p. 613). Mean weekly sexual interest did not change significantly across the 3 month diary period (Ott et al, 2008, p. 611). It is possible that hormonal effects were less influential on sexual interest than behavioral factors, such as relationship quality (Ott et al, 2008, p. 613).

Oh Dear…

You ladies must be mad at me right now. The results of this week’s blog totally contradicted with last week’s blog. I am confused as you guys are about whether birth control pill exerts an effect on our sexual drives. Well, isn’t this the very reason why studies are conducted upon studies. I never said my mission as the truth blogger was easy. I never promised that I could solve all the misconceptions when it comes to birth control pills. I am here, however to bring out as much as I can the possible perspectives and sides to birth control pills. Instead of blindly believing in certain misconceptions, I want you ladies to be able to assess the situation, the topic with all the information you can get.

Anyways, that’s it for this week! Don’t miss out on next week’s blog entry. I’ll give you a heads up, it’s about … how I will be enjoying my week without anymore blog assignments. Haha. Bye ladies. 

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Hey Joy! Can’t believe we are getting closer to the end of the semester. Hope you enjoyed reading my blog. Thank you so much for being my blog’s number 1 follower!  

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Reference

Ott, M.A., & Shew, M.L., & Ofner, S., & Tu, W., & Fortenberry, J.D. (2008). The

influence of hormonal contraception on mood and sexual interest among

adolescents. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 37(4), 605-613.

Psychetruth (2008, November 15). Sex Drive & the Birth Control Pill, Does the Pill Ruin

Sex for Girls? Women’s Sexual Health. [Video File]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssL2RHEoJgI&feature=player_embedded

Sex Ed101- The Pill and Sexual Health- Does Consuming Birth Control Pills Decrease Sexual Drive?

WOOHOO* This week is VIDEO WEEK! Instead of reading articles and journals, what’s more fun to learn through watching videos:) 

After watching the video clip, I would like to ask my beautiful ladies who are using birth control pills right now if you are experiencing any decrease in sex drive?

I for one am not ashamed to admit that I am experiencing a loss of libido ever since I started using the pill. Initially, I was just like Marilyn in the video clip. I thought I lost interest to having sex with my boyfriend because we were having tough times. However, even after our troubles, I still have not regained my sex drive at all.

Therefore, as the truth blogger, I DEMAND THE TRUTH! I want to know whether taking birth control pills actually causes a loss of sex drive! 

 

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A picture speaks a thousand words. I can totally imagine that both ladies are frustrated about their loss of libido. More yet, one of the husbands have already even fallen asleep, most likely because the woman was just not interested in having sex tonight. (Poor guy!)
 

Take a look at Video#2: The Pill and Libido Part One

So, what do the two videos have in common?  

The mentioning of the function of progesterone and estrogen, and a woman’s making of Testosterone and Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG).

The first video explained that Estrogen causes an increase in the protein called “Sex Hormone Binding Globulin,” which is a protein that binds testosterone in the plasma. When there is increase concentration of this protein, it also absorbs testosterone from the bloodstream. Testosterone is what we believe to be a major player in sex drive, sexual function, arousal, and orgasm (DiscoveryHealth, 2008).

In the second video, Dr. Yvonne K. Fulbright also mentioned that every month when ovulation occurs, the ovaries actually make excess testosterone. For women who are taking oral contraceptive, they do not have active ovaries so testosterone normally made there is not secreted. The pill does not only reduce testosterone production, it encourages the liver to produce a protein called Sex Hormone Binding Globulin which hinders the testosterone’s effects, and possibly explaining why sexual drive and arousal is affected by the pill (SexHealthGuru, 2008).

AND … How does this relate to sexual health?

Just as I learned in my Kins 140 Lecture, “Health is the complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (Bedoya, May 10^th, 2011, Lecture 1). To me, sexual health means how sex affects health and how health is related to sex. To be sexually healthy, a person must be in a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being in relation to having a healthy sexual life.  

A definition provided by Health Canada (2006) depicts sexual health as “a vital and integral part of your overall health and well-being throughout your life, integrating the emotional, physical, cognitive and social aspects of sexuality.”

When I am not having a healthy sexual life because of the effect of birth control pills have in decreasing my sex drive, I become mentally and sexually unhealthy. Having to constantly put myself in a dilemma to choose to take the pill but to also lose my sex drive simultaneously or not take the pill but cause an increase in chances of getting pregnant when I have sex is DRIVING ME CRAZY.

This is also not healthy for my social well-being. I am unable to live a purposeful and enjoyable life when I cannot satisfy my needs and my boyfriend’s needs sexually (Bedoya, May 10^th, 2011, Lecture 1).

By no means am I here to persuade you to stop using the pill because of the potentiality of losing sexual drive because not all ladies who take the pill loses their sexual drive.

So, what is the solution?

Find the right pill for your body! Talk to your physician, tell him or her your concerns about loss of libido and ask your physician to recommend the right pill for you. For example, to help Marilyn’s problem, in the first video posted, Dr. Taz Varkey suggested bringing down the estrogen levels in her pill and finding progesterone that has some testosterone-like activity. Some progesterone has more testosterone-like activity than others (DiscoveryHealth, 2008). If you are unsure whether you want to continue to taking the pill now, consult your physician anyways and discuss about alternative contraceptive methods that best suit your needs! Remember ladies, it is your sexual health which is the most important!

With love,

The Truth Blogger

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Reference

Bedoya, B. (2011). Contemporary Health Issues Lecture 1, delivered at Simon Fraser

University on May 10^th, 2011.

DiscoveryHealth (2008, November 05). Sex and Iintimacy- Sex and the Pill. [Video File].

Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnwgS22SBGQ

Health Canada. (2006, February 02). Sexual health and promotion. Retrieved from

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/sex/index-eng.php

SexHealthGuru (2008, August 25). The Pill and Libido Part One. [Video File]. Retrieved

from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AI3CE0dDXg&feature=related