Good to know: how does your cycle affect your sex drive?
There are multiple factors at play that influence your mood for sex. When you have a lot on your mind, if you had a bad day at work, if your butt is nearly freezing off every time you go outside, you will most likely have less desire for sex than when everything is sailing smoothy and the sun is brightening your day with a smile. But it’s not just outside factors that influence your sex drive, physical factors can play a big role as well, including your cycle.
Estrogen and progesterone
Your sex drive is partially influenced by your hormones, progesterone and estrogen amongst others. And it just so happens that these hormones fluctuate heavily during your cycle. In the first two weeks of your cycle your estrogen levels shoot through the roof. Estrogen is produced in your ovaries, adrenal glands, and fat cells. Thanks to nature, under the influence of this hormone, your desire for sex increases during your fertile period and women actually flirt the most during this period.
Some women even pop out that one cute sexy dress from the back of the closet, or put on that new make-up look they've been meaning to try. It seems that the fertile period doesn’t go unnoticed by men either. Subconsciously, men sense when women are ovulating. As if they can smell it. In fact, they can! It has been proven that ovulating women give off a scent.
And to top it all off: around your ovulation your mood is at its best, your thinking is sharp and clear and your verbal abilities reach a peak. In addition, you’re sexually attractive during your ovulation as well: your uterus is in peak condition and your discharge is slightly more and thinner than usual. You feel the magnetic power, your whole body is in perfect harmony during this wonderful process. If you have any important appointments, this could well be your moment.
But what about after this peak…
Just like hiking up a mountain, once you reach the top you have to climb down again. The same is true for your sex drive. After ovulation, in the last two weeks before your period starts, estrogen levels decrease and progesterone levels increase. When progesterone levels increase, your desire for sex decreases. This is, again, a process carefully orchestrated by nature. Should a woman be pregnant, the fertilized egg will get all the peace and quiet to nestle itself in the uterus. Therefore, it’s not that strange if you don’t feel like having sex after your ovulation and getting aroused is more difficult than usual.
On top of this, you can suffer from PMS symptoms during the last couple of days of your cycle, so it's highly unlikely that you'll be in the mood for sex during this period anyways. Yet, mother nature isn’t always as logical. Your desire for sex often increases during your period, even though the situation down there is a little less fresh during those days.
All of this is a beautiful orchestra of hormones conducted by mother nature. Isn’t that beautiful! All these intricate processes to bring about fertilization and also to have a wonderful peak in terms of your sex drive…
But what if you are on the pill?
Well, yes, the pill can influence your cycle and therefore decrease your libido, however, this occurs less than 1% of the time. The reason for this is that the pill suppresses your ovulation and the estrogen spike, which spurs your desire for sex, that precedes it. The pill can also affect your libido due to its influence on testosterone, a hormone which plays an important role in a woman’s sexual function. If you suffer from the sexual side effects of the pill, but you like all the other effects, you may want to talk to your doctor about trying a different pill. Fourth-generation pills are apparently a good choice for reducing these types of side effects.
