Sexual Vitality for Women: Peri-Menopause
Though peri-menopause is the time of life when your estrogen levels begin to decline to the point that you no longer have regular periods, that does not mean all peri-menopausal women immediately become estrogen deficient. Remember that estrogen dominance is a relative condition of too much estrogen as compared to too little progesterone. Some peri-menopausal women’s estrogen levels will decline so slowly that their estrogen to progesterone ratio still qualifies them as estrogen dominant. Other peri-menopausal women will continue to be estrogen dominant because extra body fat is continuing to produce lots of estrogen even when their ovaries can’t.
To definitely resolve whether you are estrogen dominant or deficient, we recommend you test your hormone levels with one of our Hormone Well Test Kits. Without that hard and fast data, your vagina is a good barometer. Estrogen deficiency causes vaginal dryness and thinning of the vaginal wall. If you are having difficulty lubricating before and during sex or if intercourse has become painful, your vagina is letting you know that it is lacking much needed estrogen.
Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is another hormone that influences the levels of your sex hormones thereby also influencing your sex drive. DHEA is called a “precursor hormone” because it can be converted to testosterone. Levels of DHEA naturally decrease with age. By the time you are eighty years old your DHEA levels will be about five to ten percent of the amount produced during your reproductive years. Age is not the only factor influencing DHEA production. Chronic stress also depletes DHEA levels. Surveys of women have linked declining DHEA production in women with a decreasing tendency to think about or initiate sex, as well as reported decrease in feelings of sexual satisfaction
These are the years when your ovaries’ production of testosterone also begins to decline. Testosterone deficiency (also medically termed androgen insufficiency) catalyzes a shift from low-libido to no-libido. If you add together extra twenty or thirty pounds, hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, vaginal dryness and a frequent need to pee, it is quickly understandable why many peri-menopausal women prefer flipping channels to fondling between the sheets.
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