A woman’s sexual desires naturally fluctuate over the years. Highs and lows commonly coincide with the beginning or end of a relationship or with major life changes, such as pregnancy, menopause or illness. However, if you are bothered by a low sex drive or decreased sex drive, there are lifestyle changes and sex techniques that may put you in the mood more often. Some medications offer promise as well.

Even researchers disagree about the best measure of low sex drive in women. After all, perfectly normal women vary greatly in their desire for sex and their views about the optimal amount of sex. Besides, the number of times you have sex each week isn’t necessarily a good measure of your libido; women skip sex for many reasons that have nothing to do with desire, including fatigue, stress, poor body image or lack of emotional intimacy

The male sex drive (sexual function in men) is a combination of motivation or sex drive/desire and mechanics i.e., the equipment working properly. These two functions are by no means separate and distinct. An erection begins with sensory and mental stimulation. Impulses from the brain and local nerves cause the release of nitric oxide that cause the muscles of the penis to relax allowing blood to flow into the spongy tissue of the penis making it hard. Man’s ability to have an erection is a recurring miracle of hydraulic engineering.

Since a man’s erection requires a sequence of events, problems can occur when any of these are disrupted such as nerve impulses in the brain, spinal column and area of the penis. It also requires a corresponding response in muscles, fibrous tissues, veins and arteries near and in the penis. Problems can come from many sources: for example those caused by medications for blood pressure and depression among others. Difficulties can also arise from physical problems such as hardening of the arteries that restricts the flow of blood into the penis.

The simplest way to capture the differences between men’s and women’s sex drives is to consider how you’d answer this test: create a sentence using the words “sex” and “love.”

If you’re a woman, odds are your sentence goes something like this: “When two people understand each other, trust each other, and love each other, then the sex is the best.” If you’re a man, chances are your sentence more closely resembles this: “I love sex.”

It’s a stereotype and more often than not, it’s true. “We like to think of men having the higher sex drive — it’s not always true, but more often, it is.

“Each person’s sex drive is like an appetite: Some people spend their whole life in the kitchen and think about food all the time; some people can skip lunch.