Most of us have a complicated relationship with food. If you?ve lived with an eating disorder, though, you know that healing your relationship to food and to yourself can be a challenging process that continues throughout your lifetime. Recovery from bulimia, anorexia, binge eating and other EDs is consuming and impacts all aspects of one?s behavior, including sex.
According to a study released in 2011 involving 242 women with eating disorders, 66.9 percent experienced decreased libido, and 592 percent experienced sexual anxiety. In other words, if you live or are recovering from an eating disorder and sex is an emotional and physical challenge for you, you are not alone. Restricting fat can result in reduced estrogen, and reduced estrogen can lead to reduced testosterone and with that goes the sex drive. ?It?s important to know that the behavior of restricting food intake can impact the physical aspects of your body that make up your sex drive,? says Morgan Statt, a safety investigator with ConsumerSafety.org. ?Specifically for women with anorexia, the malnutrition can change the way nervous system neurotransmitters function, resulting in a decreased libido.?
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Treatment for eating disorders involves a combination of psychotherapy (individual and/or group), medication, nutrition counseling and medical care. Psychiatric medicines like antidepressants and mood stabilizers can impact your sex drive, although th...