New fathers also lose their sex drive

Sleepless nights, regular feeds, endless crying…Taking care of a new-born baby can be a stressfully challenging time for any new mother.

Therefore, any woman could be forgiven for losing her sex drive in the short-term whilst trying to battle a constant feeling tiredness on top of feeling worried about still being appealing in the eyes of their partner following post-pregnancy weight gain.

However and perhaps surprisingly, it is not just mothers who have their libido impacted during the initial stages of parenthood, with a new study suggesting that fathers are also quite prone to losing their sex drive.

Researchers at Notre Dame University conducted the largest study of its kind, analysing how the biology of 400 new fathers in the Philippines altered following the arrival of their children.

Lead researcher Dr Lee Gettler, found that the men participating in the study experienced a decrease of testosterone by about a third within the first year after the birth of their child. In addition, hands-on dads who spend at least three hours each day with their child typically see a further decline of an estimated 20%.

Those behind the study claim “the sensitising effect” is created by both the psychological and cultural impulse to protect a new-born baby and would have a similar result on adoptive fathers; making them more caring and less of an aggressive nature.

Past studies have demonstrated evidence that suggests men with high levels of testosterone tend to have less sympathy in general and less urgency to react when a baby is crying.

What the findings mean for new mums is perhaps a lesser risk of their partner straying after the birth of their child, and women should have less concern about upsetting him if she does not want to have sex often in the initial first year. Women are simply programmed to prioritise taking care of their children, with sex drive put on the backburner so to speak.

“If you think about fathers in other mammalian species, they don’t really help taking care of the children,” commented Dr Gettler.

“So it seems that natural selection has stepped up men’s hormone system to respond to the needs of their offspring.”

Do statins lower male sex drive?

An Italian study of men being treated for erectile dysfunction finds an association between the use of cholesterol-lowering statins and abnormally low levels of the male hormone testosterone.

The study “sends a signal worthy of observation,” said Dr. Irwin Goldstein, director of sexual medicine at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego and editor of the Journal of Sexual Medicine. The report is published in the April issue of the journal.

Goldstein noted that, in his practice, he sees patients “several times a week” who say that their sexual performance declined after they started taking a statin.

But an American epidemiologist who did a similar study said the Italian results could be interpreted as saying that statin use reduces the incidence of erectile dysfunction.

That study, of men in Olmsted County, Minn., found a low incidence of impotence in men taking the drugs, with longer use associated with lower incidence. Men who took statins for nine years were 64 percent less likely to develop erectile dysfunction in that study than those who didn’t, said study co-author Jennifer St. Sauver, an epidemiologist at the Mayo Clinic.

The apparently contradictory results could be explained by the different populations in the two studies, St. Sauver said. The Minnesota study included men in the general population, while the Italian study looked only at men being treated for erectile dysfunction.

Thirty percent of the Minnesota men were taking statins. Only 7 percent of the 3,484 men in the Italian study were taking the drugs. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that about 16 percent of U.S. adults use statins. The lower percentage in the Italian study could indicate that statins reduce the need to seek treatment for erectile dysfunction, St. Sauver said.

The Italian study also didn’t have a control group of men without sexual problems, she said, so to establish any cause-effect relationship “you would have to take a group of men without erectile dysfunction and see how many are taking statins,” St. Sauver said.

Men who take statins and have sexual problems shouldn’t stop taking the drug, Goldstein said. “They should see a doctor for a blood test,” he said. “If testosterone is low, they should not stop taking statins but should start testosterone treatment.”

The Italian study is important because “it is the first to bring up this message in a large number of men,” Goldstein added.

One U.S. study, reported in 2007 by the New England Research Institutes, did find lower levels of testosterone in a general population of men taking statins. But detailed analysis of the data found that the reduced levels could be explained by other factors, such as obesity and diabetes, rather than statin use.

That study was done because of reports that statins might lower the risk of prostate cancer by reducing testosterone levels. No such protective effect was found.

Several scattered studies have found a relationship between statin use and lower levels of male hormones. But definitive evidence about such a relationship would require a carefully controlled study, Goldstein said.