A lot of us grew up watching the exploits of Dorothy, Rose and Blanche on “The Golden Girls.” While we all want Blanche’s zest for sex well into our 50’s, 60’s and beyond, due to hormone depletion and imbalance a lot of women begin loosing their sex drive as early as their 30s. But the golden years don’t have to be sex-less says bioidentical hormone replacement supporter and author of “
In the Mood Again,” Genie James M. M. SC. ESSENCE.com caught up with James to find out how to keep our libidos working well into retirement.
The Problem: Low Sex Drive In Your 30s: “Most women are not aware that their progesterone levels start to drop in their 30s. Most women don’t know that progesterone drops 120 times more rapidly than estrogen levels,” James explains. The typical symptoms of a decrease in progesterone are fatigue, weight gain in the butt, thighs and hips, and a low libido. “Most women have kids, they may be working mothers and they look at their lives and they go, ‘No wonder I don’t want to have sex. I’m too tired.’ What they don’t know is that there’s a hormonal shift going on that’s setting them up to feel that way,” she continues.
The Fix: Hormones: Buy an over-the-counter bioidentical hormone replacement cream, James recommends
Dr. Randolph’s Natural Balance Cream. These creams are applied to various application points on the body and the hormones absorbed right into the skin from certain.
Diet and Exercise: Start paying more attention to your diet. “Eat leafy greens that reduce your estrogen levels like broccoli and kale,” James says. “Citrus fruits, flax seeds and flax seed oils are also great and so are whole grains. And there are things that you’d normally want to stay away from like any white foods, alcohol, that kind of thing.”
The Problem: Low Sex Drive In Your 40s: “Your 40s are a funky time, as you move into that time when you’re starting to get irregular periods, your estrogen levels are sputtering,” James reveals. “As estrogen levels slow down, women start having issues with vaginal dryness and thinning of the vaginal walls and some of them will even complain of more frequent urinary tract infections. Usually women will also say that they don’t experience arousal as easily, even with manipulation. This is where women are just like men. They are missing nitric oxide.”
The Fix: Hormones: “A woman may need a stronger dosage of estrogen than what’s over-the-counter. She may need some form of prescription bio-identical estrogen,” James says. “Also L-Arginine is an amino acid and it’s a natural nitric oxide booster. Women in their 40s who aren’t finding that sex is as pleasurable as it used to be should take a natural supplement with L-Arginine.” She recommends Sex-Sational as a natural L-Arginine booster that increases sex drive over time.
Diet & Exercise: “You need to pay more attention to doing squats and lunges with fewer reps and heavier weights.” James recommends that women work out three to five times a week. “You can go by this rule: what’s good for your heart is going to be good for your genitals,” she says.
The Problem: Low Sex Drive in Your 50s and Beyond: “You’re starting to see your testosterone really drop. So you have you’re progesterone that’s gone down, your estrogen has gone down and now your testosterone drops,” James says. Testosterone is responsible for sex drive in men and women.
The Fix: Hormones: James recommends the following herbs for increased testosterone levels: Maca Tuber (Peruvian Ginseng), Miura Piama and Nettle Root.
Diet & Exercise: She also advises women to increase their digestion of essential fatty acids through eating oily fish like salmon and mackerel and zinc through eating whole grains, oysters and liver. Moreover, keep up that weight lifting–pumping your large muscle groups will increase your testosterone levels.
Genie James’ Expert Advice: “Always have your hormone levels checked once or twice a year. Doctors can check them through blood work or saliva tests. You should never take any estrogen without progesterone. [My Husband’s and my] clinic accepts insurance, but a lot of the bioidentical hormone clinics do not. So you need to check that out. “The best case scenario is that you can get shots and you can get the prescription bioidentical hormone replacement therapy from your doctor–that’s the Cadillac. But, the Chevrolet or the Ford is if you do the over-the-counter stuff and the natural supplements.”
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