What if you are FEMALE and PN is affecting your Sex Life?
 

There is support and medication for male difficulty, but what about us gals?

Any comments?

I have to wonder.... for females especially...

If you have PN or other autoimmune issues, how your libido is supposed to be?

I am 63, and before I went thru menopause I was pretty frisky and active. Once menopause hit, I sort of lost my former libido!
And you know, I feel pretty calm and clear headed for once in my adult life! How nice not to be driven by sexual thoughts and desires! I have energy for other things!

Who says we HAVE to do certain sexual things, and feel certain things as we age, or when we have a medical problem.

We spend at least 15 yrs with no sexual activity as children and who says we have to have certain levels after menopause or with illness?

I think this can be a very personal, and individual thing.

The drugs some PNers take are very sexually stultifying.

I will say when I was doing major arginine/citrulline supplements, my response was faster, and more youthful. But it did little for libido. Females need some testosterone for libido and this is blunted by pain management drugs and others, like SSRIs.

The problems people with chronic illness experience with sexual functioning are complex. But I think we should not fall prey to the magazines and media which suggest we should be doing something we no longer want to do or can do. It is a similar dilemma to the problems female teens face about body image and diet.

I may be radical, but I don't think we need to be doing at 50 or 60 what we did at 30. Only the books and media are telling us otherwise. I am more productive and settled now at my age than at any previous time in my life. This may be a rare thing to admit now in our modern sophisticated life, but I will suggest it just the same!

Such good thoughts, MrsD...

Over the past five years or so, I have lost some of my libido. I too was fairly 'active' at one time, though I am postmenopausal and do take some medications that can be 'dulling'.

These are things I have accepted and can work around that, but the thing that really bothers me is dryness and tenderness. I believe it may be due to dusautonomia and PN. My husband is extremely sensitive to this situation, but it still does bother me...

Mere

Yohimbe-Plus is an equal opportunist and apparently doesn't discriminate between genders...

Excerpted quotes from a couple's testimonial:

...She began experiencing increased genital sensitivity and the ability to reach and maintain more intense and sustained orgasmic peaks more easily. She was also able to increase the number of orgasms to well over a dozen very intense climaxes without losing the urge or genital sensitivity...

...At nearly age 50, wife and I are more than satisfied with my libido; we make love 3-5 times a week...

...For my wife... It took her almost 1 1/2 hours longer to metabolize the 3x capsule immediate-effect dosage. However, once she did, she also experienced the lightheaded "euphoria" with a curious side-effect. Her face and chest took on the identical "flush" that she normally displays during intense orgasm!...

...During the lovemaking that followed, she experienced highly heightened genital sensitivity and an almost instantaneous intense orgasmic response from the slightest stimulation. Her climaxes were explosive with very short refractory periods and began to proceed in chains. She literally exhausted herself after nearly 2 hours of non-stop floating in and out of one after another orgasm...

...We were both amazed at how easily and how long this orgasmically "sensitive" period lasted and could only attribute it to the Yohimbe plus...

http://www.iherb.com/Irwin-Naturals-...Gels/3166?at=0

I can only vouch for the male side of the story: it works and then, some... even when PN has apparently damaged the nerves connections that control sensitivity and erections!...

And it's cheap enough to give it a try at $14.46 for 120 softgels at Iherb, which represents a 10 weeks supply for a single person taking one a day for maintenance and 3 on the days where sex occurs: it takes about one week to really kick in and I can't wait to read some comments soon about it...

The "dryness" comes with aging. Every woman gets it eventually as estrogen levels fall.

You can try an estrogen vaginal cream in low dose. It typically works locally and won't be absorbed too much if used carefully.

There are lubricants too.

Also mucus membranes everywhere in the body are supported by essential fatty acid intake, so if you are not eating Omega-3 foods with flax oil, your lungs and other membranes will be dried out too. When I started with EFAs a decade ago, my GERD and asthma cleared right up within 3 months! I used to have terrible bronchitis from catching things from patients, and now I don't even get colds! I may get one episode every 4 to 5 yrs now.

One thing that makes "dryness" worse is overuse of soaps, or failure to rinse adequately. Be very careful of this, because it causes burning and inflammation, which can be interpreted as "dryness" too. I think this is the Number ONE cause of female discomfort after menopause! Using a pH baby controlled soap in very small amounts and rinsing carefully can really help IMO.

You know the media is discussing a female Viagra now, and I think this is just the wrong description of the drug that is trying to target female libido. Viagra for men does not increase libido, it increases Nitric Oxide which dilates blood vessels, and enhancing performance. But that is all it does. The female Viagra is an SSRI type drug to work on the BRAIN! I am not liking this topic AT ALL. If you search topical Viagra you can find older studies on females which showed some promise in application of a lotion form before sexual activity. This improves blood flow to the pelvic platform, and enhanced sensitivity. Why it never caught on further, escapes me. :Dunno:

Blood pressure drugs, antidepressants, anti-seizure medications, opiates, all interfere with sexual functioning. Long term opiates depress testosterone in males by suppressing the pituitary-hypothalamic axis. I think this happens in women too.

People vary in how they express themselves sexually. It is a very personal and individual behavior. I think we should strive to not fall into competitive traps by comparing ourselves to others.(or to ourselves when we were younger ;) )

Such a miracle herb concoction...for only $14 !!

The net is full of shills!

One has to be VERY careful reading those glowing testimonials!

Especially with a product that has that warning stamped right on the bottle!

I pretty much said the same thing in post #3 on this thread:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread124993.html

"I have often bought products from Iherb that sported glowing recommendations from a large number of users and which did nothing at all for me...

This left me wondering about the quality of these testimonials, that is until I came across this product where the recommendations, if anything, are somewhat understated..."

This Yohime-Plus appears to be the exception to the rule: it works so well that I'm willing to disregard the fact that California thinks one of its components may cause birth defects... which implies it's probably safe for older men no longer seeking to procreate and post menopausal women...

In any case, when I see the FDA approving cancer generating products, such as Aspartame - the head of the FDA then, now works for the maker of Aspartame - I have little respect for, or confidence in any of the regulating bodies...

http://www.naturalmatters.net/articl...e=3424&cat=247

Fifty-one percent of FDA approved drugs have serious risks and could cause adverse reactions that lead to severe or permanent disability or death. The Center for Disease Control, Johns Hopkins University and the New Jersey School of Medicine estimate that 80,000-120,000 Americans are killed by prescription drugs every year.

I read all the testimonials, on that product just now.

I find that the higher rated ones are first in the list, and then they become neutral and at the end they are negative. They are pretty balanced, except for the few in the beginning which sound like shills to me, especially the more "graphic" ones.

Did you contribute a rating, Seagem? Which one is yours?

Also this is a link to Dr. Sahelian's website:
http://www.raysahelian.com/yohimbe.html
He usually has balanced information on most supplements, and in this case he makes his own formula which appears similar to the Irwin product.
He details the side effects carefully, and points out that Yohimbine is a FDA approved drug as well. However, I am not sure the brand, Yocon, is still available, since it had some recalls in the past due to manufacturing errors.

I have never rated any products on Iherb and generally never bother to rate anything, except once in the case of the Capsaicin cream on Epinion...

It makes no difference to me - financially or otherwise - if people decide to use Yohimbe-Plus, or not... but it's so rare to find an herb where you can say: "Yes, it really works!" particularly where successful love making is involved, that I have to recommend it highly, based on the difference it made to my life and that of my wife...

Being an eternal romantic latino type - as opposed to the more reserved anglo type - I am also of the opinion that when a couple no longer "make love" - as opposed to the triter "have sex" - then something is lost in their relationship...

It's natural that the more detailed opinions appear on first page, as they have far more value than the typical comment at the end: "it works, delivery was fast, thanks Iherb"...