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Is the Pill Killing Your Sex Drive?
Joyce Tang is a writer based in New York City. Her work has appeared in Mother Jones, Double X, and The Miami Herald.
The pill works by raising levels of the sex hormone-binding globulin protein, which binds to testosterone, making it unavailable to the rest of the body. Reduced testosterone in women can cut down on masculine features such as hair growth, acne (a common reason teenage girls get on the pill), and sex drive.
Dr. Bat Sheva Marcus, clinical director for The Medical Center for Female Sexuality, asserts that "all hormones are suspect," and estimates the pill is a contributing factor in 60 percent of the women she treats for sexual dysfunction. "I think there's a very direct link between hormones and sexual dysfunction," she says.
Redman and Sibert are far from alone. In clinical studies supporting FDA approval of Yaz, one of the top-selling oral contraceptives worldwide, 5 percent of trial participants reported decreased libido, compared with 1 percent in the placebo group. Those numbers are consistent with studies of other oral contraceptives.
For three tortuous years Denise Davila, a 31-year-old New Yorker, made her way through pill after pill, from Seasonale to Loestrin to Yaz, only to deal with weight gain, cramps, mood swings, migraines, and a flagging sex drive. Like Redman, Davila avoids antibiotics or even over-the-counter products when she's sick, and had steered clear of the pill until her late 20s. Wanting more of a back-up plan to condoms, her usual method of protection, Davila finally decided to give the pill a try.
After the low-hormone option turned out not to be strong enough, Davila's doctor put her on Yaz, which many attest to being one of the worst-offending pills because it is highly anti-androgenic. "My sex drive took a nosedive," she says. "Where my sex drive was zero to 60, it flatlined." The effect was so drastic that Davila says she stopped having sex immediately. After nearly three years, Yaz was the "nail in the coffin" for her, and she abandoned her quest to find the perfect pill. She's back to using condoms, and never even considered methods that don’t affect hormone levels, such as the copper IUD. "I just don't like the idea of messing with my body or putting something into my body," Davila says.
With so many variables, women often don't make the connection between their dwindling interest in sex and their choice of contraceptive. Redman shrugged off her disinterest, thinking it was due to stress from her job. And Davila made the connection only when she started frequenting online message boards. Their apathy toward sex extended to their efforts to fix it. "You almost accept it," Davila says.
Vanessa Cullins, an OB/GYN and vice-president for medical affairs at Planned Parenthood, cautions women against assuming their lowered sex drive is caused by the pill. "Hormonal contraceptives are very effective in terms of preventing pregnancy," she says, and at a 95 percent success rate, the pill ranks among the top five most efficacious contraceptives. Additionally, no study to date has confirmed or refuted a direct cause and effect relationship between the pill and decreased libido.
Despite the murky connection between the pill and women's sex drive, many wish they had been aware or forewarned of its possible negative effects. "My doctor didn't volunteer that information," Sibert says. In hindsight, she says she probably wouldn't have chosen the method had she known.
It wasn't until Sibert went off the pill after she and her first husband divorced that she suspected her low libido might have to do with the pill. Though she wasn't sexually active, she began noticing men, and that dull, numb sensation went away. When Sibert remarried, she swore off oral contraceptives altogether.
"My sex life now," she says, "is fabulous."
Joyce Tang is a writer based in New York City. Her work has appeared in Mother Jones, Double X, and The Miami Herald.
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Justin
My wife and I have noted this...she was a tiger before birth control. Still enjoys it when it happens but doesn't pursue it as much after getting on the pill. We do our best to work around it.
capxxv
I would theorize that part of the "desire" for sex in women comes from an unconscious biological instinct to reproduce, and when synthetic hormones suppress the ability for the body's systems to reproduce, it suppresses the subsequent biological desires that encourage reproductive behavior.
annasview
are you a guy??
applesandbananas
I'm a woman, I know what he's talking about and he's right.
annasview
More a referral to the manner of speaking-- so dry and...clinical-- and as if there is no relating at all to being a woman feeling wild and lusty...maybe "celibate scientist" --
He/She's right for your experience maybe, we're all different...
In my experience, attention to specific desire-enhancing food nutrients and exercise have made much more of a difference in how lusty I get than the fluctuating hormones of taking the pill, having children, or the thrills of peri-menopause.
TexasLefty
That's exactly what I thought reading the article, and it also makes sense. Though it might suck for the ladies (and there mates), I think a decrease in sex-drive should be an obvious noted side-effect of birth control.
AngelaM
Who funded this study? Who has to gain from its outcome? This is just bogus. 5 % of women noticed a decrease of their sex drive? Does than mean 95% did not? A pretty good outcome I would say. And this comes out right at the 50th anniversary of the pill. The greatest liberator of women worldwide. Just watch how many unwanted and unintended pregnancies will decrease the sex drive. What an idiotic article with a misleading headline.
GinaRN
I agree. This is a very suspect story, whose planned or unplanned result is less birth control being used.
This reminds me of the antichoice groups and "christian sex educators" who tell teenagers that birth control can sterilize them, and that the condom failure rate is 85%.
melissapeddy
This is totally true, at least for me. Not all women respond to the pill in the same way & I would wager that much more than 5% of women experienced decreased libido while on the pill (especially Yaz...it's a libido-killer), but because of the stigma of silence concerning female sexuality, weren't honest in this study. Personally, Yaz destroyed my sex drive & thank God I have the most patient husband in the world who can wait until these fake hormones are finally out of my body & I get my drive back.
My doctor proposed that I use the IUD (since many of her patients were experiencing the same problem on birth control pills). Anyway, sorry to point out that the pharmaceutical companies have much more to spend on advertising than a few measly American anti-choice groups.
Women need to listen to their own bodies.
Thechemist
The greatest liberator of women worldwide? You would think women should be the greatest liberator of themselves. And as far as chemical liberation goes I think LSD is far more liberating.
cnsjasmbs
The compliant about decrease in sex drive isn't new news. Anecdotally, there has been talk about this for years, particularly in women who are on the pill for long periods of time. Many women are on some form of the pill for 5 years or longer. Yet, the only information from a counseling/warning standpoint they usually get is the information one receives the very first time one uses the pill. I had a doctor recently inform me that my insomnia may be hormone (i.e., pill related) due to my long term use of the drug. Who'd have thunk it?
More information about the long term effects of being on the pill for an uninterrupted time period would be extremely helpful to women because it enables us to better understand what is happening to our bodies and it gives us better tools to make decisions about whether to think about whether alternative methods of birth control might, at least for some degree of time, be appropriate.
planetwork
women generally have allowed the current narrative: take birth control pills and lose your desire for sex; breast feed only- unless you want your under/over weight sick children to have ear infections, diabetes and chronic flu; remain at home with your children at least until fifth grade, homeschool if you can because at home with mother is the best way to nurture and support young children; pro life is the only consideration considering that life begins in men (by the time sperm hits egg it should be considered practically one month old); speaking of old, don't wait too long girl before you start making babies because you can't do it without IVF after thirty-poor thing waited too long trying to tap the glass ceiling; and finally no, there are no women in the rare air offices of the financial crisis-women don't have those kinds of jobs. besides women still make less money than men and cannot have a high powered job like that commanding such a low fee. what has happened to women and the feminist movement-when did we become so afraid of living, of choice. and now we should be afraid of the pill?
ninjaw
ahhh...the black hole of medical knowledge that is the female reproductive system...it's 2010, when is the medical community going to stop succumbing to societal pressures and figure this sh*t out!? Enough with anecdotal evidence and the home schooler, "have every child God intended" movement and these stupid old wives's tales. We've cured erectile dysfunction, lets move the microscope over to the females now shall we? I for one have experienced no decrease in drive after being on the pill for 10 years. And alloypony (below), the pill is not a monkey wrench, it disrupts nothing! In fact, it for the most part cures cramps, which can take any woman out of commission for a week every month. Unless men support the use of pill, they should really keep their mouth shut.
applesandbananas
Yo planet,
You don't understand. Hormonal birth control contraceptive has synthetic estrogen and/or combined with progesterone. What that does to a woman's body it ULTIMATELY stops ovulation, and it rises the SBGH (sex hormone binding globulin). It basically makes a woman's body think that it is pregnant.
Ovulation is the peak fertility level. It occurs 20 days after menstruation. What happens during ovulation since it is the peak level of fertility is women begin to be more wet, yes wet, and horny, yes horny. The brain makes the woman want to have sex during that time.
So when a woman's on birth control, ovulation stops so all that want to have sex gets thrown out of the window.
And about testosterone levels, women have them. Testosterone is the main key component behind sex drive and feeling stimulated as well. It is the major sex hormone which is also thrown out of the window once women take synthetic hormones.
That is why when women are on bc pills, their skin starts too look like porcelain or baby's butt. They are smooth and clear because all the testosterone are gone. Testosterone is responsible for acne because it activates the sebaceous glands.
Being on synthetic hormones is not worth it. Like what I said, stick to condoms, get an IUD implanted or pull it out.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention most of our processed meat are packed with estrogen and other hormones to make them fat in a very cheap way. It is very sad.
alloypony
If the machine is in good working order, throwing a monkey wrench in it is not smart !
cbiserette
Indeed!
Thechemist
Wise words.
ittybittykitty
Interesting. I am in my 50s and having some hormone issues now. It has dawned on me that for most of my life my hormones have been tampered with . I only had a normal cycle from age 13 to 18. Started on the pill at age 18, was on it until age 35 when I had kids. Back on it after pregnancy, nursing etc. around age 40. I am not sure what normal is anymore.
amyschaumburg
I had the EXACT experience mentioned in this article and TOTALLY did not get the connection until very recently. Wow!
cbiserette
I noticed and made the connection the very first time I put on the patch. I realize the stats are only 5% of women, but it is devastating when you fall in that 5%. I strongly believe it is more than 5%. Many just haven't made the connection.
neo0071
this is 'NEWS" seriously.... I am no DR. but I have always known this about 'THE PILL"
OrangeDoorHinge
Quick! Get all those abstinence proclaiming teens on the pill!
ChanRobt
Sorry, darling, you can't fool mother nature.
applesandbananas
It's not just desire to have sex, it's also the ability to be and feel stimulated.
I've experienced this and I can conclude that being on hormonal contraceptive was one of the devastating decisions in my life. I was on monophasic birth control pills, so I was loaded with synthetic estrogen and progesterone. With that, my testosterone vanished, I sure did look good with clear skin, my hair was voluptuous generated by estrogen, but when I would have sex, it wasn't really pleasing at all.
It took me a year to come back to normal and I was on birth control for probably two years.
During that path to normalcy or au naturel, I was a bitch because my hormones were all over the place AND I shed a lot of hair because my body was not used to lowered estrogen.
Today, yes I love sex, it feels great when I'm being done. For any women and men considering hormonal birth control for yourself or for your partner I HIGHLY NOT SUGGEST IT. For goodness sake, wear a condom, have an IUD implanted or pull it out!
octavio
In the past;
the article about women's g-spot was more interesting.It was concluded that all women have their g-spot in the man's wallet.
About the pill,applesandbananas is completely correct.Eat five
applesandbananas per day and never take the pill.The pill is
only good for the big pharmaceutical companies profit increasing goals.Big pharma is not concerned with women's
sex drives.They probably knew about these pill's side effects.
We can not trust capitalistic,large pharmaceuticals.If nothing
works,avoid the pill and have sex during your birthday only.
I never seen any low sex drive problems,because as soon as
women see me they become wet and start acting like they are in heat.
By the way,republicans love to do whatever big pharma tells them to do.Never vote republican,vote socialistic/democratic only.Look in the dictionary,socialism is good for the 300 million
average Joe's.
whirlofagirl
The timing of this article is spectacular, as I have just been realizing this myself. I have been on the pill since I met my husband (7 years). Had a snafu with the prescription last month therefore off schedule, I had to wait till my next cycle. We got frisky soon enough and I went,"Hmmmmm!???" Something was indeed wonderfully different. So different we soon went at it again (tmi, sorry!). I even told my therapist about it last week. Where I was only going to take a 6 month break, this article has made me decide not to go back on them, and I now have a six months supply.
Check it out, girls, you won't be disappointed!
Veronicaxy
Whirl, good on you -- sex with the right man makes the world and the girl go round (and round and round)!
Thank you.
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