Menopause Cuts Into Sex Drive

Later, honey.

Uttered those words to your sweetheart lately? Join the pack.

Among women who have finished menopause -- brought on by surgery or by age -- 24 percent to 36 percent have a low sex drive, says a new study.

The study, published this month in Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Society, showed that women aged 20 to 49 who had a hysterectomy that included their ovaries reported the biggest problems, a fact recognized in medicine that has prompted minimally invasive, ovary-sparing procedures.

Removing ovaries in a hysterectomy can cause an abrupt cessation of hormones that triggers sex drive, explains Dr. Jonathan Zaidan, a Lake Orion, Mich., obstetrician-gynecologist.

The study also looked at hypoactive sexual desire disorder, the psychiatric term for a more chronic disorder that affects men or women who stop fantasizing about sex or who no longer desire it.

Women's sexuality differs from men's >