In this article:
- Loving and understanding your own body can charge your sex drive
- Imbalanced sex hormones could be getting in the way of your libido
- What if it’s an issue with your partner?
- Sex and CBD
Let’s tackle two taboo subjects at once: cannabis and sex.
Earlier this year, Base founder Lola Priego and CBD brand House Of Wise founder Amanda Goetz, joined host Lindsey Metselaar of the We Met At Acme podcast to talk about sex, hormones, and how CBD could be one of the key ingredients to a healthier libido. Here are some of the key takeaways from their conversation.
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Takeaways:
- A low sex drive can stem from stigmas, taboos, and low self-confidence as a result of the way the media and our culture views sex - although we are making a lot of strides in the right direction.
- Low libido could also be indicative of a hormone imbalance.
- CBD, the non-psychoactive component of the cannabis plant, is a promising solution for improving your desire and pleasure.
Loving and understanding your own body can charge your sex drive
So many of our hangups with sex are psychological, stemming from the media and cultural “rules” that have become ingrained in us over the years. Even though we’ve been making a lot of strides and progress over the past couple of years, sexuality (and more particularly, female sexuality) is still a pretty taboo subject.
As House Of Wise founder Amanda Goetz mentioned during the episode, from a heteronormative standpoint the media has historically portrayed women as tools for men’s pleasure. This inevitably leads to many women viewing sex and their vaginas as utilitarian rather than as something that could be pleasurable for themselves.
Body insecurity is another issue that could be standing in the way of your sex drive. When we’re constantly shown ideas of the “perfect body” and we don’t match up to those standards, the resultant insecurity can make it hard for us to become comfortable with ourselves sexually and beyond.
The good news, though: we as a society are starting to move forward from the negative and shameful views of sexuality. Social media has been an especially powerful tool - with positive trends like self-love, sex-positivity, and body positivity becoming more and more prevalent, we’re starting to break through that cycle of stigma and shame.
Imbalanced sex hormones could be getting in the way of your libido
In addition to the psychological roadblocks that stand in the way of a sex drive are the biological ones.
One of Lola’s key points made during their conversation was that we sometimes blame ourselves for having a low libido when the issue is actually indicative of imbalanced hormones. Your sex drive depends more on your sex hormones than you might think, and knowing where your baseline levels are could be a key way to start revving up your desire and improving your sex life.
Some key hormones that could be throwing your libido out of whack include:
Estrogen:
This is one of the primary sex hormones for females and plays a huge role in your reproductive cycle. As such, estrogen is also super important for your arousal and plays roles in boosting your desire and your ability to produce natural lubrication. Studies have found that increasing levels of estradiol, one of the estrogen hormones, has been linked to improved sexual responsiveness and desire.
Progesterone:
Progesterone is another key hormone for your reproductive cycle, but its primary function is to support your body during pregnancy. It’s thought that high levels of progesterone that are imbalanced with your estrogen levels can lead to a declining sex drive.
Testosterone:
While testosterone might primarily be thought of as a male sex hormone, improved levels of it can also increase sexual desire in women.
Cortisol:
At Base, we see it time and time again: elevated levels of cortisol, the hormone responsible for our stress response, is all too common. Unfortunately, it could be one of the major issues getting in the way of your sex life. Cortisol overproduction can interfere with the production of some of the other sex hormones like testosterone, plus you’re probably much less interested in sex when you’re stressed. And on the flip side, a high sex drive can also be indicative of adrenal fatigue over time, so the goal is to get those levels balanced.
Funnily enough, one of the best ways to improve your hormone balance is to have more orgasms!
Masturbation, full of stigmas as it is, is actually really good for your health and your overall sex life. It releases oxytocin, helps you sleep, and can increase sex hormones like testosterone and estradiol. It’s also a great way to destress, which can help you combat those high cortisol levels.
So by opening up the conversation around sex, approaching it from a biological perspective --- and yes, masturbating more --- we can help break the stigma around sex and improve your desire for it in the process.
What if it’s an issue with your partner?
A consistently low sex drive could potentially indicate that the roadblocks could be between you and your partner.
If you still feel sexual desire and arousal but don’t feel it towards your partner, it might be worth taking a closer look at your relationship. Don’t forget that stress can be a key issue blocking your sex drive - if your relationship is full of baggage and you feel sad or upset when you’re around them, it can obviously bring the mood down. But by working on your relationship and addressing those issues, you can absolutely improve your desire for that person afterward.
On the other hand, a libido that is consistently low at all times is a clear indicator that the issue lies elsewhere like your hormones, energy, and stress levels, not your partner.
Sex and CBD
Interestingly, one of the best supplements that you can take to improve your sex life is another fairly taboo subject that’s been gaining a lot of attention recently: CBD.
CBD, or cannabidiol, is the component of the cannabis plant that brings the anti-anxiety, anti-inflammatory, and pain-relieving goodness of the plant. It’s not to be confused with THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis that gets you high.
CBD is probably most well-known for its stress-relieving abilities. On its own, CBD can help people who deal with anxiety and high cortisol levels cope and unwind without the psychoactive, mind-altering effects you might get from THC.
But besides replacing your glass of wine at the end of a long and stressful day, CBD is also proving to be a very promising aid for people looking to heat it up in the bedroom. CBD could help increase your blood flow, making you more sensitive (and helping you find more pleasure) during sex. It’s also an anti-inflammatory compound that can reduce pain and promote relaxation, both of which are big perks for better, more enjoyable sex.
In addition, CBD could also help bring some balance back to those hormones that drive your sexual desire. In an effort to understand this relationship, Base partnered up with House Of Wise to see exactly how CBD worked on improving female sexuality. Our small clinical trial found that women who used CBD gummies showed improvements in their estrogen, estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone levels. That, combined with its effects on lowering stress and improving cortisol levels, is a promising indicator that CBD could help improve the hormone-driven sexual roadblocks. Lola herself found that CBD was helpful for improving both her high cortisol levels and her sex drive.
So while more research still needs to be done to determine exactly how CBD works to improve your sexual desire, the early results are promising!
If you want to give CBD a try and see whether or not it’ll make a difference in your sex life, there are plenty of options out there for you to try. You can get them in edible forms, like gummies and drinks, but you can also get CBD-based products that are specially designed for sex: think lubricants and massage oils, to name a few.
But to best utilize CBD for this purpose, you should first have an idea of your baseline hormone levels. The at-home Sex Drive Testing Plan from Base can give you clear insights into where your sex hormones stand right now and give you data-driven actions that help you improve for the future.
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Looking to improve your sex drive?
Take our quiz to build a bespoke testing plan that will help you boost your libido.
