Peer Reviewed
Men's health

Managing men with low libido

Margaret J Redelman
Abstract
It is important to assess whether a complaint of low libido represents dissatisfaction with innate libido, a decrease in libido or a discrepancy between the man and his partner.
Key Points

    Desire, horniness, machismo and libido are difficult terms to define. What is medically normal for male libido has not been determined, but most health professionals have a sense of ‘normal’ based on factors such as their own cultural expectations, the man’s age and health, and often the man’s appearance and social and relationship status. Sex drive has a natural bell-shaped biological distribution, so 5 to 10% of the population will fall at the low or high extremes of the curve. From nature’s viewpoint, libido is about wanting to have sex often enough to impregnate a partner for the survival of the species. Nature does not require sexual meaningfulness, recreation or finesse. However, human beings do.

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