Losing the sensation in my clitoris. What can I do?
>> Friday, May 1, 2015
Over the past three years my once oversized clitoris is lacking the ability to engorge and the size and sensation of my clitoris has decreased, the size is approximately 1/5 in size and it is a challenge for my partner to find let alone stimulate.
Have I damaged this area? Is there anything I can do? Please help!
Sincerely
Desperate in Ontario
Many women struggle with the difficulty of having an orgasm due to clitoral shrinkage. This is due to the hormone changes that come with aging and menopause. You still may be having regular cycles, which means that your ovaries continue to produce some hormones.
Most women will begin peri-menopause sometime in their forties. Peri-menopause is the beginning of mild or severe hormone fluctuations. It's a roller coaster - at times your hormones will function normally, and then the next month we can have shifting, drop offs or severe imbalances, all causing emotional and physical changes in our bodies. Living a healthy lifestyle with exercise and good diet are all important during this time.
The good news is that many of these symptoms and changes can be reversed by replacing naturally back to your body all the hormones that are dropping off. This takes much dedication and hard work.
Estrogen and Testosterone are the two key players. However, most women will have a drop in progesterone first, then estrogen. This begins the imbalance. Testosterone is tricky, especially if you don't have a previous testosterone level on yourself. This is because testosterone does not fluctuate with our cycles like estrogen and progesterone, but as we approach menopause it slowly drops off, yet may never show up as a deficiency.
Estrogen can also appear normal or even high on a blood test while adrenal hormones and progesterone drop to a deficiency level. It's all about balance, not just adding back what's deficient. It is also important to note that we have 3 different types of estrogen: E1, E2, and E3. E2, or estradiol, is the main estrogen that drives everything for most of our reproductive years, including our breast development, sex drive, moods, periods etc. E1, or estrone, is a minor player until menopause, then E1 and E2 flip, and E1 becomes the dominate estrogen. E3, or estriol, is only dominant during pregnancy, but is second highest behind E2.
Imbalance may cause our sex drive to drop off and reduce clitoral sensitivity and size. The happy news is even though your clitoris may never return to pre-menopausal size, through hormone balancing, the sensitivity and size can greatly improve.
Many women use testosterone implants or injections along with testosterone gel, which helps greatly. This must be accompanied with DHEA, one of the main adrenal hormones, to make sure E2 remains the dominant estrogen in your body.
Progesterone is not as important for clitoral size or sensitivity, but is our mood balancer, removes water retention, helps with anxiety, weight loss and sleeping.
So you need to find a doctor who understands the importance of hormone balancing and can help you figure out what is happening in your body.
Note, like a recent writer mentioned many women use masturbation to help with sleeping. It is frustrating when a vibrator or manual stimulation takes 30 minutes to an hour to orgasm and the orgasm intensity is decreased dramatically.
I have many patients who have found that the above hormone balancing can be the help. We can't replace female hormones or thyroid hormones with herbs and medications. The same is true if a man's testicles stopped producing their hormones and dried up - an herb wouldn't help him. He would need testosterone replacement to sexually perform and feel well.
Have I damaged this area? Is there anything I can do? Please help!
Sincerely
Desperate in Ontario
Many women struggle with the difficulty of having an orgasm due to clitoral shrinkage. This is due to the hormone changes that come with aging and menopause. You still may be having regular cycles, which means that your ovaries continue to produce some hormones.
Most women will begin peri-menopause sometime in their forties. Peri-menopause is the beginning of mild or severe hormone fluctuations. It's a roller coaster - at times your hormones will function normally, and then the next month we can have shifting, drop offs or severe imbalances, all causing emotional and physical changes in our bodies. Living a healthy lifestyle with exercise and good diet are all important during this time.
The good news is that many of these symptoms and changes can be reversed by replacing naturally back to your body all the hormones that are dropping off. This takes much dedication and hard work.
Estrogen and Testosterone are the two key players. However, most women will have a drop in progesterone first, then estrogen. This begins the imbalance. Testosterone is tricky, especially if you don't have a previous testosterone level on yourself. This is because testosterone does not fluctuate with our cycles like estrogen and progesterone, but as we approach menopause it slowly drops off, yet may never show up as a deficiency.
Estrogen can also appear normal or even high on a blood test while adrenal hormones and progesterone drop to a deficiency level. It's all about balance, not just adding back what's deficient. It is also important to note that we have 3 different types of estrogen: E1, E2, and E3. E2, or estradiol, is the main estrogen that drives everything for most of our reproductive years, including our breast development, sex drive, moods, periods etc. E1, or estrone, is a minor player until menopause, then E1 and E2 flip, and E1 becomes the dominate estrogen. E3, or estriol, is only dominant during pregnancy, but is second highest behind E2.
Imbalance may cause our sex drive to drop off and reduce clitoral sensitivity and size. The happy news is even though your clitoris may never return to pre-menopausal size, through hormone balancing, the sensitivity and size can greatly improve.
Many women use testosterone implants or injections along with testosterone gel, which helps greatly. This must be accompanied with DHEA, one of the main adrenal hormones, to make sure E2 remains the dominant estrogen in your body.
Progesterone is not as important for clitoral size or sensitivity, but is our mood balancer, removes water retention, helps with anxiety, weight loss and sleeping.
So you need to find a doctor who understands the importance of hormone balancing and can help you figure out what is happening in your body.
Note, like a recent writer mentioned many women use masturbation to help with sleeping. It is frustrating when a vibrator or manual stimulation takes 30 minutes to an hour to orgasm and the orgasm intensity is decreased dramatically.
I have many patients who have found that the above hormone balancing can be the help. We can't replace female hormones or thyroid hormones with herbs and medications. The same is true if a man's testicles stopped producing their hormones and dried up - an herb wouldn't help him. He would need testosterone replacement to sexually perform and feel well.
