Just as you are certain you don't know, I'm certain I do. I've checked many, MANY, MANY, testosterone levels in my years. Sometimes it's relevant, sometimes it's not. The premise is the problem. I just don't see evidence that intercourse frequency is a biologically or hormonally contingent reality. It's an emergent phenomenon of which hormone levels play a part, but they're not the whole story, or even frankly the biggest part.
In women it’s not a hormonally contingent reality?!?! Physicians like you are exactly the ones who don’t take women or female sexual dysfunction seriously. Thank goodness for doctors like Dr Mary Haver, Dr Louise Newsom and Dr Kelly Casperson who have helped women who have been gaslit by physicians and their hormonal changes.
I’d add this. How much time are you spending with your patients to ascertain that they have fulfilling and happy marriages. I’ll be REALLY generous here with one hour every 6 weeks? That seems relevant and lol.
sorry, fell asleep. Valid points. Can only go by what patients tell me. I will say that I'm in primary care so see patients 3-4 times annually for years, so get to know them. And we talk about relationships and sex frequently, as it's part of health. And my partner is a gynecologist who has similar experiences to mine. All I'm saying is that there's no one right frequency for everyone nor biologically determined right frequency.
I appreciate your perspective! There definitely is no right frequency as evidenced by the men responding to this note and I did say most not all men. I’d counter that you should consider that patients are not always forthcoming with their physicians when it comes to intimate matters. Join any menopause forum and will you find a few women that have higher libidos than their partners? Sure, but overwhelmingly the complaint is low libido compared to their spouse that they either don’t feel comfortable discussing with their doctor or feel that it was minimized when they brought it up.
Oddbean new post about login | logout