Posts Tagged ‘hormones’

DHEA…we thought so all along

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 by Bat Sheva Marcus LMSW MPH PhD

A new small scale study out of Italy seemed to show that DHEA can be helpful with menopausal symptom and can also positively affect a woman’s sexual desire.

http://www.healthnews.com/en/news/DHEA-Hormone-Therapy-May-Be-Menopause-Magic/0UuHws6wf6pBU1vtwcDIcD/

So why is anyone surprised? The truth is that DHEA is a precursor hormone (or a “mother hormone” – but that title might suggest that it yells at you if you don’t clean your room and DHEA definitely does not do that!) which converts in your body to estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. So yes, taking DHEA every day is going to have an impact on your hormones. The fact that it is a hormone that is identified by the FDA as merely an “herbal supplement” is what should be surprising.

Be that as it may, for women who are suffering from the effects of low hormones, either with menopausal symptoms, low libido, dry skin or memory loss, DHEA might indeed give them relief. But keep in mind one caveat. It really and truly is a hormone. Don’t mess around with it alone too much. If you are serious about using it see your doctor, or better yet, see a specialist. Make sure you are having regular blood tests and someone is monitoring your hormones to make sure you are in a normal range and checking you regularly for side effects.

And keep your eyes out for more studies – it will be interesting to watch as DHEA comes of age.

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Hormones: The base coat paint

Thursday, May 26th, 2011 by Bat Sheva Marcus LMSW MPH PhD

 

Plain and simple, hormones seem to be the base coat paint for our sexual functioning. They have such a significant impact on who we are and how we react to things that when they are low or missing or if we have too much, nothing really seems to go right. We can get anxious, moody, depressed, lethargic, overly excitable and can lose our sex drive.  Exactly how hormones work on the brain, how they interact with each other and what specific quantities people need to “work right” is still being studied. There’s so much we don’t know. But for those of us in the field of sexuality it is becoming clearer and clearer that without a proper hormonal profile the odds that sexual problems will present themselves go way up.

Sometimes people are skeptical. How can hormones really matter that much? Especially with sex, people are very quick to say “oh, that’s ridiculous. It’s all about the relationship. “ Or they believe it’s all about the person’s confidence, or emotional make-up.

But that is simply ignoring basic truths that we understand about our bodies.  Consider this:

When kids go through adolescence we expect that they will all of a sudden have an interest in sex. Or, if they were a young child with an early interest in sex, we expect their interest will increase significantly, after all they are “going through puberty.”  Hmmmm…. What exactly is puberty? It’s an increase in those hormones that make you interested in sex! And what is our immediate reaction when we see an 18 year old boy ogling a girl? We are amused, and assume that his “hormones are going through the roof.” In so many ways we acknowledge that hormones are the engine that powers the sex drive. We are okay with that. And we understand it to be true.

But somehow, as soon as it comes to understanding the adult libido, we seem to change our tune. Now it’s all about relationships, conversations, sexy underwear. Maybe it’s time we rethought the issue and accepted that, yes, hormones play a significant, significant role in our sex life.

Don’t get me wrong. Our relationships, our confidence and even sexy underwear can play an important role – but hormones seem like a starting point that just can’t – and shouldn’t – be ignored.

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The Pill and Libido

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 by Ilene Rosenthal, Marketing

The website SheKnows.com handles a lot of tough issues from love and sex, to home and garden, to parenting and health.

When considering the connection between the pill and your sex life and the role of hormones in a woman’s libido, there is a lot of reliable research to support this link. The question is: birth control!  For some women, finding another avenue for birth control is a bigger deal than saying yes when they mean no in the bedroom.  Read more on the She Knows site.

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Low hormone levels: always the problem?

Thursday, September 16th, 2010 by Bat Sheva Marcus LMSW MPH PhD

Having low hormone levels do not necessarily mean that your desire for sex will shrivel up like styrofoam in a campfire. Sex, and our desire for sex, is dependent on many, many elements and hormones are just one of them.

For most women having a healthy relationship with her partner,  being attracted to her partner, having time and energy available, getting enough sleep or having a generally healthy physical profile can all impact desire, and these may be just as important as hormone levels.

Take sleep for instance: if you are so sleep deprived that you cannot stay awake for 10 minutes without your eyes shutting, in all likelihood you will not be interested in or even capable of having sex. However, if you are just tired, most people can still locate their libido with a little encouragement.

The same is true with hormones. Your levels might be a little low. But if everything else is in line, you can probably maintain some interest in sex, even with low hormone levels. If, however, your hormones are way out of whack, or if other things are off kilter in addition to your hormone levels,  then you will most likely feel a dramatic decline or absence of interest in sexual activity.  At some point, if you are walking around with the hormone profile of a 10 year old, nothing else will make up for it except for the addition of hormones.  This can help you achieve and maintain better balance for your body which will effect everything, including sex.

Here’s the bottom line, many factors have the power to put the kibosh on your sex life. So think hard about the ones that appear to be obvious; then check out the others that may lie under the surface.

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Dr. Bat Sheva Marcus interviewed by CBS News on female sexual desire

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 by Ilene Rosenthal, Marketing

Last week, Dr. Bat Sheva Marcus, who has been the clinical director of the Medical Center for Female Sexuality for 10 years, was interviewed by CBS Channel 2 News in New York regarding the expected upcoming approval of a treatment for low sexual desire in women.  Flibanserin, manufactured by the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, is expected to gain FDA approval in the coming weeks for the treatment of hyposexual sexual desire disorder, or HSDD.

The treatment works by increasing the production of dopamine, a chemical in the brain that contributes to sexual desire.

Experts acknowledge that female sexual desire stems from a combination of hormone levels, chemicals in the brain, blood flow and, of course, the quality of the intimate relationship between two people.

Dr. Marcus applauded the addition of Flibanserin in her “toolbox” of possible treatments for her patients, but cautioned that female sexuality is complex and no one treatment is a panacea for all women with low desire.

MCFS patient Gail Marien was also interviewed on CBS and spoke honestly about her journey from the virtual desmise of her libido following a hysterectomy to her satisfying sex life with her husband today.

View the video here

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Libido flip-flop

Friday, April 9th, 2010 by Bat Sheva Marcus LMSW MPH PhD

This entry was written recently by a patient at MCFS following six months of treatment for low desire.  Her previous entry, written after her second appointment last October, was posted on April 5th.

Last night I kissed my husband’s ear and he did not move. He wasn’t in the mood and I was!

For some people this would be frustrating. For me it was amazing! Finally, our sex life is equal. We have an equal investment in pleasuring each other.  With almost equal interest in sex – it is no longer just about his needs and my succumbing (reluctantly). The mere fact that I was interested did change his mind, and a wonderful evening ensued, but it was a pivotal moment for us.  The last few months have changed our, and my, life. God had given the world the gift of sexuality and pleasure, and it was a gift that I never received, never really understood. I now know that I was missing out on huge piece of the beauty that exists in this world and missing out on a more meaningful and spiritual connection with my husband. I am eternally grateful to the MCFS for helping me find this gift.

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Bioidentical Hormones

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 by Bat Sheva Marcus LMSW MPH PhD

There is so much confusion and misinformation when it comes to “bioidentical hormones.” Let me see if I can set the record straight.

• “Bioidentical hormones” does not mean that the hormones are “organic.”
• “Bioidentical hormones” does not mean that the hormones are “natural.”
• “Bioidentical hormones” does not mean that the hormones are “not really hormones.”

“Bioidentical hormones” means that the chemical makeup of the hormones exactly matches the chemical makeup in the same hormones in your body. It can be man-made but the molecular components are exactly the same as that same hormone in your body. For example, if you look at bioidentical estrogen under a microscope it would look exactly the same as the estrogen your body makes. It could have been created all chemically, in a laboratory, but the components of the compound match your body.

“Hmmmm…” you ask, why would anyone make non-bioidentical hormones to replace those in your body. Well, for one thing bioidentical hormones can’t be patented. The same way you can’t patent water, unless you add some flavorings to it, you can’t patent estrogen unless there is something different about your estrogen. So drug companies are incented to change the chemical compound. Sometimes makers of specific hormones suggest that the difference they have made is a “good” difference and thus justify the changes. We haven’t found that to be the case. In general we find that women seem to respond better to bioidentical hormones.

But don’t worry about the drug companies. Now that many realize that women prefer the bioidentical compounds they have found ways to patent their product by developing better or unique delivery systems: a specific cream to hold the compound, a patch, a pellet.

So, if a practitioner wants to prescribe a hormone, you can ask if it’s bioidentical…and now you’ll even know what that means.

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