757: THE IMPACT OF HORMONE THERAPY ON SEXUAL INTIMACY

“It’s always the little decisions that have the biggest impact.” —Mark Cuban

As you age, your body and hormones will inevitably change. This can lead to challenges in your Sexual Intimacy Pillar with drops in libido, desire, or interest in sex. 

Hormone therapy is an effective way to get your body back on track. 

When starting any kind of therapy, especially hormone therapy, you’ll likely have expectations. Some of these expectations will be met, and others won’t. 

Since anything you do to your body affects your marriage, it’s important to keep your emotional intimacy strong with regular conversations as you take this journey together. 

Whether you’re experiencing low libido, hot flashes, brain fog, or other symptoms of hormone changes, it’s helpful to know what’s happening inside your body. 

Hormone therapy can help. 

To feel confident and comfortable when starting hormone therapy, you need a healthcare provider you trust. Your doctor should explain everything to you in a way you understand as they present options and conduct tests. 

Tests may assess your testosterone or progesterone levels, B12, or other hormones. Treatments can come in the form of injections, patches, capsules, creams, and more. 

Hormone therapy is not a one-and-done process, so find a healthcare professional who provides you with all the necessary information. 

You’ll likely receive a chart from your medical professional that tracks your body’s reaction to supplements, hormone therapies, or other treatments over time. Your doctor might recommend tweaks to your plan to optimize your results. 

Expectations are not always reality when it comes to hormone therapy. 

If you’re like us, you might expect hormone therapy to make you feel and act like you did in the early days of marriage. For example, you may expect instant arousal, constant thoughts of sex, and a “Let’s do it now!” mentality. 

Keep in mind individual results always vary. But it hasn’t quite been like that for us. 

While we thought hormone therapy would make it nearly impossible to keep our hands off each other, we haven’t experienced this dramatic change. 

That said, you might notice a greater willingness to have sex. Or you might think a bit more about sex. These are changes we have experienced. 

Another shift that we’ve experienced because of hormone therapy is that our desire during sex has skyrocketed. 

For us, this has looked like greater emotional intensity, more eye contact, and more verbalization during sex. These improvements directly correlate with our emotional intimacy. 

In addition, we’ve experienced physical changes that affect our sexual intimacy, such as increased quality and frequency of erections, heightened arousal and sensitivity during sex, and less need for lubrication. 

Again, these have been our individual results, and everyone responds differently to hormone therapy.

If hormone therapy is something you’re considering, it’s essential to discuss what that could look like in your marriage.

We strongly recommend conversations between the two of you where you discuss why you are considering hormone therapy, as well as the possible benefits and side effects.

And determine how you will check in with each other throughout the process.

For yourself, it’s also important to think through your expectations, concerns, and commitment to the process. Ask yourself if you feel comfortable asking your medical provider about changes you’re experiencing or if something is “normal.”

Whether one of you is doing hormone therapy or both of you, make sure to have regular check-ins on how it’s affecting your sexual intimacy. 

For example, what are you noticing about your times together? 

How do you see your body responding differently? Is this treatment meeting your expectations? Is this having a positive impact on your sexual intimacy?

Hormone therapy can have plenty of expected and unexpected effects on your 6 Pillars of Intimacy®, especially emotional and sexual intimacy.

Open communication with your spouse and doctor is key as you optimize your hormones. 

Please note that we are not medical professionals. This episode is not intended to diagnose, treat, or in any other way give medical advice. Consult a medical professional with questions or concerns you may have.

Resources

743: What’s Up With The Hormones

Katalyst Wellness

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