A drop in sex drive is one of the most common health complaints across all ages and genders, and in most cases, it’s reversible. The fix depends on what’s causing it: hormonal shifts, medication side effects, stress, poor sleep, or relationship dynamics can all quietly suppress desire. Here’s how to identify what’s working against you and what actually helps.
Start With Sleep
Sleep is one of the most underestimated factors in sexual desire. When healthy young men were restricted to five hours of sleep per night in a University of Chicago study, their testosterone levels dropped by 10 to 15 percent. That’s a significant decline from just a few nights of short sleep, and testosterone is a key driver of libido in both men and women.
Cortisol, your body’s primary stress hormone, also rises when you’re sleep-deprived. Cortisol and sex drive work against each other: the more stressed your body feels, the less energy it allocates toward sexual function. If you’re consistently sleeping under seven hours, that alone could explain a noticeable dip in desire. Fixing your sleep won’t produce overnight results, but within a few weeks of consistent seven-to-nine-hour nights, many people notice a difference.
Check Your Medications
Antidepressants are the most common prescription culprits behind low libido. SSRIs (the class that includes sertraline, escitalopram, fluoxetine, and paroxetine) work by increasing serotonin in the brain, which helps with mood but often dampens sexual desire, arousal, and the ability to orgasm. This isn’t rare or unusual. It’s one of the most frequently reported side effects of these medications.
If you suspect your medication is the problem, there are several practical options. Sexual side effects sometimes fade on their own after the first few months. Timing sex for the part of the day when side effects are weakest (often as far from your dose as possible) can also help. Some people do well switching to a different antidepressant. Bupropion, for example, works through a different brain pathway and is significantly less likely to interfere with sex drive. In fact, adding bupropion to an existing SSRI regimen has been shown to counter sexual side effects, boost desire and arousal, and increase the intensity of orgasm in both men and women.
Beyond antidepressants, birth control pills, blood pressure medications, antihistamines, and certain anti-seizure drugs can all lower libido. Don’t stop or change any medication on your own, but do bring this up with whoever prescribed it. There are almost always alternatives worth trying.
Address Chronic Stress
Your brain is the most important sex organ you have, and it doesn’t multitask well. When you’re under sustained stress from work, finances, caregiving, or conflict, your nervous system stays in a heightened alert state. That state actively suppresses the relaxation response your body needs to feel desire and become aroused. This isn’t a willpower problem. It’s physiology.
The most effective interventions are the ones that lower your baseline stress level over time. Regular exercise is consistently linked to higher libido, partly because it reduces cortisol and partly because it improves body image and energy. Even 20 to 30 minutes of moderate activity most days makes a measurable difference. Mindfulness practices, therapy, and simply reducing your commitments where possible all contribute. The goal isn’t to eliminate stress (impossible) but to give your nervous system enough recovery time that desire has room to surface.
Hormonal Changes and What to Do About Them
Testosterone declines gradually in men starting around age 30, dropping roughly 1 percent per year. For most men, this is too slow to notice, but combined with poor sleep, weight gain, or high stress, the cumulative effect can become significant by the 40s or 50s. A blood test can confirm whether your levels are genuinely low. If they are, testosterone replacement therapy is one option, though it comes with tradeoffs worth discussing with a doctor.
For women, the hormonal picture is more complex. Estrogen and testosterone both drop during perimenopause and menopause, which can reduce desire, make arousal slower, and cause vaginal dryness that makes sex uncomfortable. Low estrogen specifically affects blood flow to the genitals and natural lubrication. Localized estrogen treatments can address the physical discomfort, and for premenopausal women with persistently low desire that causes distress, flibanserin is the only FDA-approved medication specifically for this purpose. It’s a daily, nonhormonal pill that works on brain chemistry to increase sexual desire and the frequency of satisfying sexual experiences.
Nutritional Gaps That Lower Libido
Zinc plays a quiet but important role in sexual function. It’s involved in testosterone production, and a zinc deficiency can reduce your sense of smell, which research has linked to lower libido, particularly in younger men. The recommended daily intake is 11 milligrams for men and 8 milligrams for women, with a maximum of 40 milligrams. Oysters, red meat, pumpkin seeds, and chickpeas are all strong sources. Most people eating a varied diet get enough, but vegetarians, vegans, and heavy drinkers are more likely to fall short.
Vitamin D deficiency has also been associated with lower testosterone and reduced sexual satisfaction. If you spend most of your time indoors or live in a northern climate, it’s worth checking your levels. Magnesium supports testosterone production and helps regulate the stress response, making it another nutrient worth paying attention to if your diet leans heavily processed.
Supplements: What the Evidence Actually Shows
Maca root is the most commonly recommended natural supplement for libido. Some small studies suggest it may improve sexual desire without directly affecting hormone levels, though the evidence is mixed. A clinical trial using 3,000 milligrams per day in women with medication-related sexual dysfunction was never completed due to insufficient enrollment, which is a good reminder that many supplement claims outpace the science behind them. If you try maca, the typical dose used in research is 1,500 to 3,000 milligrams daily.
Ashwagandha has shown some promise for reducing cortisol and improving sexual function in stressed adults, but again, the studies are small. Neither supplement is a substitute for addressing the root cause. If poor sleep, medication, or chronic stress is driving your low libido, no supplement will overcome that on its own.
The Relationship Factor
Low desire doesn’t always originate in your body. Unresolved conflict, emotional distance, resentment, or simply the monotony that builds in long-term relationships can suppress libido as effectively as any hormone deficiency. If your desire returns when you’re away from your partner, fantasizing, or with a new person, the issue is likely relational rather than physical.
Sex therapy or couples therapy is one of the most effective tools here. A therapist can help you and your partner communicate about mismatched desire, explore what’s changed, and expand your definition of intimacy beyond intercourse. Even when the original cause is physical (a medication or hormonal shift), the emotional patterns that develop around it often need their own attention. Many couples find that rebuilding nonsexual physical intimacy, things like touch, closeness, and play without pressure to perform, naturally reopens the door to desire over time.
A Practical Starting Point
If you’re not sure where to begin, start with the basics that are entirely in your control: get your sleep to seven-plus hours consistently, move your body most days, and cut back on alcohol, which suppresses arousal and disrupts sleep even in moderate amounts. Review any medications you’re taking for known sexual side effects. If those changes don’t move the needle after a month or two, getting your hormone levels and key nutrients tested gives you concrete data to work with rather than guessing.
Libido rarely disappears for a single reason. It’s usually a stack of factors, each one shaving off a little desire until the cumulative effect becomes impossible to ignore. The encouraging flip side is that addressing even one or two of those factors often produces a noticeable improvement.