Can Thyroid Issues Affect Your Libido?

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The thyroid is a butterfly shaped organ that is wrapped around the front lower half of your neck, and it is surprisingly important for such a small organ. It controls the metabolism, which impacts upon digestion, nutrition and energy levels – all of which can have a huge affect on your sense of wellbeing. But what is less understood is the effects of thyroid disease or other issues upon the libido. This is because, largely, the sex drive is one of those almost taboo subjects that are seldom raised, even in the appropriate environs of the doctor’s surgery. But let us shine a little light on the topic.

What is Thyroid Disease?

Your thyroid will, under normal circumstances, produce a steady and carefully measured albeit variable amount of two different types of thyroid hormones: T3 and T4. These two hormones between them ensure that your body remains in the best possible condition. When thyroid disease occurs, there is usually one of two possible results. The first is from an insufficiency of thyroid hormone, known as hypothyroidism, and the second is an overabundance of it – and this is called hyperthyroidism.

What Does Thyroid Disease Do to Your Body?

Thyroid issues can be very subtle – hypothyroidism can manifest as a dragging tiredness, dry skin and dull, brittle hair, for example: symptoms which can also be caused by being outside in unpleasant weather. Or it can be severe: deep fatigue leaving the patient almost impossible to wake up, hair loss, weight gain, and poor appetite. Hyperthyroidism is similar, with minor cases showing a slight agitation and nervousness, which can often be misdiagnosed as anxiety. More severe symptoms can result in a breakdown of the body’s functioning and can even lead to something called thyroid storm – a sudden massive overloading of the body with thyroid hormone – which can be lethal if it is severe enough. With both hypo- and hyperthyroid conditions, your libido can be impacted as you simply feel too ill to desire sex. Hypothyroidism can result in erectile dysfunction in men, and vaginal dryness – which can make sex extremely painful – for women.

What Can Be Done?

The treatment for hyperthyroidism is to change the condition to hypothyroidism, because hypothyroidism can be managed, while hyperthyroidism cannot. Treatment – sadly, there is no cure for thyroid issues except in very rare instances, such as some cancers and pregnancy-initiated thyroid disease – involves being administered a carefully tailored dose of artificial thyroid hormone, levothyroxine, which is T4, and Cytomel, which is T3. The latter, T3, is the ‚blunt instrument‘ of the thyroid hormone balance, getting levels approximately to where they should be (read about Cytomel benefits here), while T4 is the ‚fine tuning‘ instrument, carefully balancing thyroid hormone levels for optimum bodily performance.

Once you and your doctor have arrived at the right dosage for you, you will be delighted to find that your sex drive, or libido will soon return to something like normal and you can enjoy the resumption of regular relations with your favorite person.