Stress can affect your life in many different ways. The physical and emotional toll of constant stress can lead to burnout, migraines, exhaustion and many other health issues. One of the more understated impact of stress is how it affects the sex lives of both men & women.
How stress impacts your sex life?
Reduced sex drive. A direct consequence of prolonged stress is loss of libido. Libido is a person’s overall sexual drive or desire for sexual activity. When stressed, the amount of cortisol in your body rises sharply. This disrupts the overall hormonal balance in your body and can lead to decreased libido. In fact, cortisol also causes your blood vessel to contract, causing difficulty in arousal and for men, erections. This is one of the main ways stress impacts sex life.
Irregular menstrual cycle. Stress can change up the hormonal balance in your body. When menstruating, a woman’s hormones are already fluctuating and stress can make it worse. As a result, it can delay the onset of ovulation and in extreme cases cause you to miss a period entirely. This uncertainty and stress can affect the sex lives of women.
Lack of orgasms. For men & women both, stress can impact your ability to enjoy and experience an orgasm. From hormonal imbalance and physical exhaustion to a brain that’s tired, stress makes it harder for you to orgasm. As a result, you may disengage from sex, not feel motivated and have other performance-related issues. Since orgasms are a major part of sex and stress affects it, your sex life definitely suffers!
Exhaustion. When you are stressed, your energy levels droop and you may feel lethargic, slow, and tired. This depleted energy can be a big hindrance for you to engage in sexual activity with your partner. In fact, when facing prolonged stress or burnout, people some times lose total motivation and desire for sex owing to reduced energy. Hence, it’s important to pause and recharge, anytime you feel low on energy and proactively manage stress.
Emotional state of mind. Stress takes a major toll on your emotions and self-confidence. You feel low, sad and unmotivated totally. As a result, you would not be in the frame of mind for sex, which is a very intimate physical act. As a result, the emotional turmoil prolonged stress brings impacts your sex life adversely!
Stress and sex are part of a vicious cycle. If you’re stressed, you won’t have a high sex drive. The lesser sex you have, the more personal problems and stress it can bring. Which repeats itself and it goes on!
In order to manage stress and ensure your sex life, social life and other facets of your life don’t suffer, ensure to follow the best practices to live a stress free live. Unwind at the end of a workday, get enough sleep, eat the right food and practice stress relief exercises to stay balanced during the day. Ensure you aren’t facing burnout and avoid it totally. In case you are facing burnout or prolonged stress, know how to get back on top to beat stress & burnout!
Evolve helps you proactively manage stress in your daily life with a variety of light & joyful guided meditations. The Evolve app is now live globally on Android & Apple, click here to try for free!