All of us know that sexual expressions are a natural part of your life. If an overwhelming urge for sex or a low sex drive affects your job, health, relationships and other areas it needs to be taken care off. Read ahead to learn more

Frigidity is broadly used to refer as low libido (sex drive) level in women. The term is often incorrectly used to describe women who are emotionally cold or do not respond to their partner’s sexual advances. A lack of sexual desire can either be psychologically embedded in a person’s subconscious or physiological having medical condition involved.

Emotional Causes of Frigidity

• Past traumatic sexual experience e.g. rape, incest, or sexual assault
• Feeling emotional distance/ disconnected from a partner
• Communication problems or arguments or unresolved emotional issues between partners
• Intimacy inhibitions due to religious or personal taboos
• Emotions e.g. shame, guilt, depression, anxiety, or boredom in the relationship
• Situational factors like an intoxicated partner, or in-laws being in the next room
• Fear of pregnancy or STDs/ AIDS
• Low self-esteem or lack of confidence

Physical Causes of Frigidity

• Pain or discomfort during intercourse
• Dryness in the vagina
• Lack of adequate foreplay
• Poor sexual performance by partner
• Exhaustion or fatigue
• Insomnia
• Effects of prescribed medicines
• Effects of alcohol or substance use or abuse
• Hormonal changes
• Nerve damage due to surgery or trauma
• Infection or gynecological problems

A lack or absence of sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity for some period of time is also referred to as hypoactive sexual desire disorder. It must cause significant distress or interpersonal difficulties and is not better accounted for by another mental disorder (i.e. depression), a drug (legal or illegal), or some other medical condition.

After 38 years of marriage my husband died and there was one good side of it. At last I was free from sex! Hurrah! My husband was right in saying that I was frigid and I had no sex drive. Then, to my horrified surprise, my libido suddenly sprang in the three years later from nowhere. It was a cruel twist as now I was deprived of a sexual partner and it was obvious that I wasn’t frigid after all! After all those married years of supposing my libido dead to discover it most certainly wasn’t thoroughly shocked me. My sexual yearnings had simply lapsed because my husband. Despite having all the physical attributes, he never discovered how to be a lover.

To a man’s bewilderment, the more a man tries to push his wife to be better in bed, the colder she is likely to get. With his own needs screaming inside him, a man can be expected to start emphasizing sex, and yet this usually sets off alarm bells within a woman. Despite the partner’s best intentions, she could soon end up feeling devastated, imagining he wanted her simply because he wanted someone to sleep with! The actual truth is that the most common reason for female frigidity is that their partners are not the great lovers they imagine themselves to be.

Just as an egg cannot burst into life unless it is kept warm, and plants can’t flower until right conditions, so can’t a normal woman reach the pinnacle of sexual passion if she doesn’t feel loved, valued, secure, relaxed and physically refreshed.

With men, various medical problems, psychiatric problems (such as mood disorders), or increased amounts of prolactine are seen to be causes of a low sexual desire. Other hormones are believed to be involved as well. But additional factors such as emotional problems, relationship problems or stress are believed to be possible causes of reduced sexual desire in women.

Nymphomania

On the other hand a high level of sex drive in often referred to as Nymphomania. Calling someone a nymphomaniac or accusing them of nymphomania isn't something that can be defined. Nymphomania is a layperson's term used to label women, or a nympho, whose sex drive or sexual activity is subjectively too high. The term "nymphomania," is not scientifically meaningful simply as there are no specific criteria that would define a woman as a nymphomaniac. Basically there isn't a way to determine how much sexual desire or activity is too much or more than normal.

The clinical condition that includes the concept of high sexual drive and/or high levels of sexual activity is hyper sexuality and sexual addiction or compulsivity.

The significant features of these disorders are that sexual activity is an insatiable need, often interfering with everyday functioning; sex being impersonal, with no emotional intimacy; and despite frequent orgasms, sexual activity is not generally satisfying.

The label of nymphomania is used in a derogatory manner, exclusively in reference to women. To many men, the idea of a woman with a greater sex drive than their own is something to be threatened about, so they may use the label to keep their own egos up by proving that the woman is abnormal.

Usually men with sexual dysfunction might accuse their partners of being oversexed in an effort to hide their own fears or sense of inadequacy, just as women who sometimes object to the frequency of their partner's sexual advances might accuse him of being oversexed.

The difference is in the double standard that exists in our society that congratulates a man who is highly sexed and has many partners, calling him a "stud", whereas a woman with the same behavior is often labeled as a "nympho", which carries a negative connotation.

The exact cause of nymphomania is unknown. According researches, the possible causes of nymphomania include:

Hormone levels – Androgen is a sexual hormone that is produced both in men and women. These hormones play a vital role in sexual desire. Levels of these hormones might vary in individuals.

Brain abnormalities – Conditions like epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and dementia all have been associated with nymphomania depending on the part of the brain being affected.

Natural brain chemicals – Naturally produced chemicals in the brain like dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine play an important role in sexual functioning and thus variations in its levels may cause nymphomania.

All of us know that sexual expressions are a natural part of your life. An overwhelming urge for sex and intensely preoccupying with that affects your job, health, relationships and other areas is when it needs to be taken care off.

A high sex drive could lead to problems like:

· Participating in intercourse with more than one partner or extra marital affairs

· Employing in excessive masturbations

• Revealing yourself in public places (exhibitionism)
• Frequently using pornographic materials
• Indulging in sex with unknown partners
• Indulging in sadistic sex
• Staying away from emotional involvement in sexual relationships.
• Anxiety, depression and extreme stress
• Losing focus on your work
• Being arrested for sexual crimes like prostitution
• Making a habit of high risk behaviors like drug or alcohol abuse
• Sexual problems like hepatitis, HIV and Sexually transmitted diseases

Nymphomaniacs often use sex as an escape from problems like anxiety, depression, loneliness and stress. It can affect anyone despite of sexual preferences, along with homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual preferences.

Treatment

A vast range of methods has been used to treat frigidity, ranging from group or individual desensitization to hormonal treatment. Psychiatric treatment which aims to release early unpleasant experiences from the psyche in order to overcome the psychological causes of frigidity is also used though it is time-consuming.

HSDD (hypoactive sexual desire disorder) like a lot of sexual dysfunctions is something that people are treated for in the context of relationships. It is common for both partners to be involved in therapy. The therapist tries to find a psychological or biological cause of the HSDD which is sometimes possible and sometimes not. If the HSDD is organically caused, the clinicians try to deal with that. If the clinician believes it is has a psychological root cause, then they may recommend therapy for that. Treatment mostly focuses more on relationship and communication issues-—improved communication (verbal and nonverbal), working on lost sexual intimacy, or education about sexuality may all be possible parts of treatment. Sometimes problems occur because people have unrealistic views on what normal sexuality is and are concerned that they do not compare well to that. This is one reason why sex education is important. If the clinician thinks that part of the problem is a result of stress, methods may be recommended to effectively deal with that. It is important to understand why the low level of sexual desire is a problem for the relationship as both partners may associate different meaning with sex but not know it.

In the case of men, the therapy may depend on the type of HSDD. Increasing the level of sexual desire of a man with lifelong/generalized HSDD is unlikely. Instead the focus might be more on helping the couple to adapt. In the case of acquired or generalized, it is possible that there is some biological reason for it and the clinician may attempt to deal with that. In the case of acquired or situational, psychotherapy may be used, possibly with the man alone or together with his partner.

In the case of hyper sexuality the individual definitely needs to consult a professional and take medication, as it does not have a psychological cause for it. Pharmacotherapy along with psychotherapy would be helpful though, as first the compulsive thoughts of sex need to be controlled and then for the irrational thoughts and behavior change can be brought about by psychological therapies like cognitive-behavior therapy which seems to work well along with the medication given.