Hi! I’m Tori, and I’m a doctor of physical therapy who specializes in pelvic dysfunction
and I think that pelvic health and pelvic issues should both be more openly discussed
and widely understood because everyone has a pelvis!
So, today we are going to talk about why having a low libido for a period of time after having
a baby is an expected, normal, and healthy evolutionary response meant to help you and
your offspring survive.
Outside of the other completely valid reasons that your libido might be lower than usual
postpartum—like exhaustion and fatigue, healing from labor and delivery, or body image
changes as you learn to love and accept a different version of yourself—you are biologically
programmed through hormone changes to temporarily lose interest in sex during this time.
While the hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy and postpartum are multifaceted,
we’re going to focus specifically on estrogen in today’s PSA—the sex hormone that we
know has the most impact on female libido.
Estrogen, which normally fluctuates throughout a person’s cycle, has a positive relationship
with libido—where higher levels equal higher libido, and lower levels equal lower libido.
In a healthy, not pregnant, premenopausal woman who isn’t on birth control, estrogen
levels can range between 15-800pg/mL, pending on where that woman is in her cycle. During
pregnancy, normal levels can reach up to 20,000 pg/mL; however, the moment the baby and placenta
are delivered, those estrogen levels drop significantly to menopausal levels—around
10 pg/mL or less.
Why would this drastic hormonal change and subsequent decrease in libido be evolutionarily
advantageous? To ensure your, your offspring’s, and your future offspring’s survival. If
you were to have sex and become pregnant soon after delivering a baby, that could interfere
with your healing as you recover from labor and delivery which could impede your ability
to care for your newborn or safely carry and deliver future children. And, if you’re
breastfeeding, becoming pregnant while breastfeeding can decrease milk production, which, through
an ancient lens before we had access to formula, would mean you could be sacrificing your newborn’s
food supply should you become pregnant. So again, evolutionarily speaking, this programmed
period of low libido ensures that you can heal your body, care for and feed your baby,
and carry and deliver future babies.
Usually estrogen levels normalize to pre-pregnancy levels around 6 months after delivery, which
is also about when you can expect your first postpartum period; however, that timeline
does differ pending on if and how often you’re breastfeeding—where the more and longer
you breastfeed, the longer estrogen remains suppressed for the reason we were just discussing.
And that is why having a low libido after having a baby is expected, normal, and healthy.
Thank you so much for watching and be sure to join me on the 10th and 20th of every month
for future pelvic PSAs, with surprise PSAs on the 30th, where I attempt to cover an interesting
pelvic health or pelvic issue topic in 5 minutes or less! See you next time!