It's Just Sex: Not Tonight Dear

Susan and Ed seem to have everything a married couple could want: lots of love, a home of their own in Ohio and a beautiful baby boy.

"I remembered just feeling like he was the one, just as soon as I met him," says Susan of her husband.

But then Susan and Ed began having problems with their sex life. Susan lost her sex drive, which began to cause problems in their relationship. Erin Moriarty reports on this problem, which is more common than many realize.

Two thousand miles away, another young couple had the same problem. The 27-year-old wife in that couple lost interest in sex shortly after she gave birth to their first son. "I don't desire it at all anymore," she says. "At all. It's weird because I used to."

"I got married to her because I love her," says her husband. "But sex has got to be there."

Experts estimate that nearly half of all American women have sexual dysfunctions. The most common complaint is loss of desire. Women used to suffer in silence. That attitude, though, is changing.

Among the sufferers is a former model named Christina Ferrare, now a TV show host. She admitted her problem on national TV.

"I just blurted it out," she remembers. "Then...I went, 'Oh, my God! You know, I just admitted to the whole country that I no longer have a sex drive.'"

But Ferrare's admission helped many women who happened to be watching that day, including Susan. "When I saw the show, it was like she was talking to me," says Susan. "I just couldn't believe it because I felt somebody had finally validated what I was thinking, and it wasn't me alone."

When Susan went to see her doctor, she was told the problem was in her head.

But the problem may not have been purely psychological. At the Women's Sexual Health Clinic at Boston University, urologist Jennifer Berman and her sister, sex therapist Laura Berman, believe there is a medical solution that could help millions of women.

"We are beginning to realize that the same medical problems that cause arousal problems in men also cause sexual dysfunction and arousal problems in women," says Dr. Jennifer Berman.

Doctors now believe that low sex drive in women may be a medical problem caused by a hormone deficiency, which in many cases can be treatable.

Jennifer Berman tested another married couple for low levels of testosterone. This hormone usually associated with men, testosterone, is also key to the female sex drive. Jennifer Berman believes that there is a connection between pregnancy and low testosterone levels. She says that no one has investigated the subject, and there is no data.

In the case of the tested couple, low testosterone appears to be the problem. The woman may begin taking the drug to increase her body's levels.

For Ferrare, testosterone changed everything. "I got a buzz like right away," says Ferrare, who has written a book about her experiences, Okay So I Don't Have a Headache.

"I am enjoying my se again," she says. "I'm having great orgasms. If I can say that on air, I'm proud of it."

* * *

It's Just Sex: Too Much Sex? - Sexual imagery has saturated American society, through advertising, music, films, the Internet, and television. Has American society gone too far? Some say yes.

More from CBS News