May 6, 2010 5:17 PM

The Pill: A Link to Lower Female Libido?

By
Charles Cooper
Topics
Tech Talk
As the pill turns 50, a host of commentators are dissecting the impact that it's had on society. Now comes a study suggesting that oral contraception may also have had an inhibiting effect on the female libido.

That controversial finding was offered in a paper published by the Journal of Sexual Medicine and based on a survey of 1,086 German female medical students.

"Women using contraception, especially hormonal contraception, had significantly lower sexual functioning scores," the researchers concluded.

Most of the participants reported having used oral contraceptives while nearly all had been sexually active in the previous month. (80% reported being in stable relationships.")

The study found that "hormonal contraception" (i.e. the pill) was associated with lower desire and arousal scores when compared with other contraceptives. (Note: the definition of sexual dysfunction used in the study extended to feelings of diminished desire and reduced interest in sexual fantasies, arousal problems (mental and physical), inability to achieve orgasm, and pain associated with vaginal penetration.)

At the same time, the authors were careful not to draw a direct causal relationship between the pill and lower female libido. For one thing, the researchers were not working with a control group. They also were only able to compare their findings to prior studies. One last reason to hedge their bets: the investigation was targeted at medical students, so the age range of people participating in the study was limited.

The Birth Control Revolution

The Pill Turns 50

Still, there was enough evidence for Journal of Sexual Medicine Editor-in-chief, Dr. Irwin Goldstein, who is also director of sexual medicine at the Alvarado Hospital, University of California, San Diego, to offer this cautionary note: "When you fool around with your sex steroid hormones, you gamble with your sex life," he said. "The value of this paper is to remind us that 300 million users of the pill (worldwide) are putting themselves at risk (of sexual changes), with extremely limited informed consent that this is happening."


  • Charles Cooper is an executive editor at CNET News. He has covered technology and business for more than 25 years, working at CBSNews.com, the Associated Press, Computer & Software News, Computer Shopper, PC Week, and ZDNet. E-mail Charlie.

Add a Comment See all 13 Comments
by zeyancya May 18, 2010 1:54 AM EDT
Using questionnaires to assess sexual function in more than 1,000 female medical students in Germany, researchers found that women who used a hormonal method of birth control ? mostly oral contraceptives ? had lower levels of sexual desire and arousal than women who used nonhormonal methods like condoms or no contraception at all.
http://www.womenhealthcenter.net/
Reply to this comment
by P0ST1ING_AWAY May 7, 2010 6:50 PM EDT
by TVO1CITW May 7, 2010 7:42 AM EDT
The PILL was suppose to be the cure-all. There is something about unrestrained sex that affects people later on down the line. Someone knew that in the human design and medicine got in the way. Now they are going to try to fix it again with a pill. That's what it is all about. If they don't, Hollywood will go under.
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You and your fellow MoronGelical christians need to leave this
country and go live with your cousins ... THE TALIBAN
Reply to this comment
by whanon May 7, 2010 6:28 PM EDT
This study is only an observational study which means it does not prove cause and effect that the pill causes low libido.

The participants selected for this study were female medical students and they do not necessarily reflect other groups of women.
One should assume that female medical students lead stressful lives,and may be different than the general population. Therefore, if you are trying to understand the association between hormonal contraception and sexual dysfunction, a more diverse, general population would be needed to answer this question. Because sex and desire can also be affected by stress, partner-related factors, and medical issues, it is hard to draw sweeping conclusions based on observational data.

So Dr. Goldstein's comments are premature when he stated that when you fool around with sex hormones you are gambling with your sex life And one cannot conclude that the value of this paper is to remind us that 300 million users of the pill (worldwide) are putting themselves at risk (of sexual changes), with extremely limited informed consent that this is happening. His comment makes for a great sound biet but is not accurate information for women. Women want accurate information based in the data---not sound bites that do not reflect the data.
Reply to this comment
by displeased May 7, 2010 12:34 PM EDT
I think women lose interest because they are bored with their monotonous sex life. Being with one person is like eating pizza everyday for the rest of your life. I suggest getting out and trying a steak occasionally!
Reply to this comment
by rf35 May 7, 2010 12:01 PM EDT
It sounds right to me. When my wife was on the pill, she had a noticeable decrease in desire. Not to mention all the other side effects. Her hormones were so far out of whack that she was becoming extremely hard to get along with. Best thing I ever did was get the snip and get her off the pill.
Reply to this comment
by TVO1CITW May 7, 2010 7:42 AM EDT
The PILL was suppose to be the cure-all. There is something about unrestrained sex that affects people later on down the line. Someone knew that in the human design and medicine got in the way. Now they are going to try to fix it again with a pill. That's what it is all about. If they don't, Hollywood will go under.
Reply to this comment
by jankebenzone May 7, 2010 12:08 AM EDT
by erasmus111
Getting into that BC bud a little much eh
Reply to this comment
by erasmus111 May 7, 2010 3:37 AM EDT
Hahahahaha!

You don't smoke pot when you are pregnant, silly.
by P0ST1ING_AWAY May 6, 2010 6:44 PM EDT
by formrusmcsgt May 6, 2010 5:37 PM EDT
As the pill fools the body into thinking it's pregnant, makes sense that lessend desire could be a side effect.....
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Thanks for your input on the medical front, Dr. SchmuckSteinBerg !
Reply to this comment
by formrusmcsgt May 6, 2010 5:37 PM EDT
As the pill fools the body into thinking it's pregnant, makes sense that lessend desire could be a side effect.....
Reply to this comment
by erasmus111 May 6, 2010 7:19 PM EDT
So you are saying that women that are pregnant have less desire for sex?

I never noticed that. When I was pregnant, I even had dreams about having sex. In fact several times I woke up having an orgasm. Too much information? : )
by erasmus111 May 6, 2010 7:55 PM EDT
What I was trying to say was that I had more desire when I was pregnant than I normally did.
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