Low libido is one of the most common sexual health concerns for both men and women, and it rarely has a single cause. The good news is that several proven strategies can help, ranging from sleep and exercise changes to addressing nutrient gaps, managing stress, and exploring medical options when lifestyle shifts aren’t enough.
Why Libido Drops in the First Place
Sexual desire is driven by a mix of hormones, brain chemistry, and psychological state. Testosterone plays a central role for all genders. In men, levels below about 280 ng/dL significantly impair sexual function, and when estrogen climbs too high alongside low testosterone, the effect worsens. In women, both estrogen and testosterone influence desire, though the thresholds are less clearly defined. The Endocrine Society recognizes low testosterone as a contributor to reduced desire in postmenopausal women.
But hormones are only part of the picture. Stress, poor sleep, relationship tension, certain medications (especially antidepressants and blood pressure drugs), and underlying health conditions like diabetes or depression can all suppress desire independently. That’s why increasing libido often requires working on several fronts at once.
Get Enough Sleep
Sleep is one of the simplest and most overlooked factors. Testosterone production is directly tied to sleep, not just your body clock, and it requires at least three hours of uninterrupted sleep with normal sleep stages to begin rising. In a controlled study, men who were restricted to five hours of sleep per night for just eight nights saw their testosterone drop by 10 to 15 percent. That’s a meaningful decline, roughly equivalent to aging 10 to 15 years in terms of hormone levels.
If you’re consistently sleeping fewer than seven hours, that alone could be dragging your desire down. Prioritizing sleep hygiene (a consistent bedtime, a cool and dark room, limiting screens before bed) is a low-effort change with outsized payoff for sexual health.
Exercise Regularly, but Don’t Overdo It
Physical activity improves libido through multiple pathways: it raises testosterone, improves blood flow, reduces stress hormones, and boosts body confidence. A systematic review of exercise and sexual function found that moderate-intensity activity, gradually building to about 175 minutes per week, improved sexual outcomes in both men and women. For people who are overweight, higher volumes of 200 to 300 minutes per week showed even stronger results.
Both cardio and resistance training help. Walking programs, cycling, and general fitness routines have all shown benefits in clinical studies. The key is consistency over intensity. Extreme endurance training, like marathon preparation or overtraining in the gym, can actually suppress hormones and lower desire. Aim for a sustainable routine that leaves you energized rather than depleted.
Address Nutritional Gaps
Zinc is essential for testosterone production, and even mild deficiency can lower levels. The recommended daily intake is about 11 mg, with an upper safe limit of 40 mg. You can get zinc from oysters, red meat, poultry, beans, nuts, and fortified cereals. If your diet is low in animal products, supplementation in the 15 to 30 mg range is reasonable, though staying well below 40 mg daily avoids side effects like nausea and copper depletion.
Vitamin D deficiency has also been linked to low testosterone in observational studies, and many adults are deficient, particularly those who spend limited time outdoors. A blood test can confirm your levels, and supplementation is straightforward if you’re low.
What About Herbal Supplements?
Two supplements come up frequently: ashwagandha and maca root. The evidence for both is modest and worth understanding before spending money on them.
Ashwagandha has been studied at 300 mg twice daily (600 mg total) over eight weeks. In a pilot study of women, it improved overall sexual function scores, but the improvement in desire specifically was not statistically significant compared to placebo. It may help more with arousal and stress reduction than with desire itself, which makes sense given its known effects on the stress hormone cortisol.
Maca root has been tested at doses ranging from 1,200 mg to 2,400 mg daily over 8 to 12 weeks. Some small studies report improvements in self-reported desire, but a systematic review noted that the optimal dose remains unclear and the overall evidence quality is limited. Neither supplement is harmful at these doses for most people, but neither is a reliable fix on its own.
Manage Stress and Mental Health
Chronic stress floods your body with cortisol, which directly suppresses sex hormones and shifts your nervous system into a mode that’s incompatible with arousal. Anxiety, depression, and relationship conflict are among the most common causes of persistently low desire, and no supplement or hormone treatment will fully overcome them.
Mindfulness-based therapy has shown significant improvements in sexual desire, arousal, and sexual distress across multiple studies. These programs typically run four to eight sessions, often in group settings lasting 90 minutes each. The approach teaches you to stay present during sexual experiences rather than getting caught in performance anxiety or distraction. Even informal mindfulness practices like meditation apps or breathwork can help reduce the background stress that blunts desire over time.
Couples therapy or sex therapy can also be valuable when relationship dynamics are involved. Low desire often has a relational component that individual strategies won’t address.
Medical Options for Women
For premenopausal women diagnosed with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (persistently low desire that causes distress), two medications are currently available. Flibanserin is a daily pill taken at bedtime that works on serotonin receptors in the brain. In clinical trials, it increased the number of satisfying sexual events by roughly 0.5 to 1 additional event per month compared to placebo. That may sound small, but women taking it were nearly twice as likely to report meaningful overall improvement. It takes several weeks of daily use to see effects, and it can’t be combined with alcohol.
Bremelanotide works differently. It’s a self-administered injection taken as needed before sexual activity, acting on receptors involved in arousal pathways. It offers more flexibility since you don’t take it daily, but nausea is a common side effect.
For postmenopausal women, short courses of low-dose testosterone may be appropriate when desire is significantly impaired, though this remains an off-label use in most countries.
Medical Options for Men
When low libido in men is caused by clinically low testosterone (confirmed by blood tests, typically on two separate mornings), testosterone replacement therapy can help. In a large randomized trial of over 1,100 men, testosterone gel improved sexual desire compared to placebo. Notably, it improved desire but not erectile function on its own, which highlights that erection problems and low desire are related but distinct issues that sometimes need separate treatment.
One important nuance: some men try to boost testosterone by suppressing estrogen with aromatase inhibitors, but this approach has been linked to decreased libido, bone loss, and liver problems. Both testosterone and estrogen play roles in male sexual function, and artificially crushing estrogen can backfire.
A Practical Starting Point
If your libido has dropped and you’re not sure where to begin, start with the basics that affect nearly everyone: sleep seven or more hours per night, exercise at moderate intensity for at least 175 minutes per week, and honestly assess your stress levels and relationship satisfaction. These three factors account for a large share of desire problems and are entirely within your control. If those changes don’t move the needle after a couple of months, a hormone panel (testosterone, estrogen, thyroid) can reveal whether something biological needs attention. From there, the medical options described above become worth discussing with a provider.