We all know high cholesterol is bad for the heart – but new research has suggested that it can reduce a woman’s sex drive as well. A study carried out at the Second University of Naples has shown that hyperlipedemia – or raised levels of blood cholesterol – can prevent women from becoming sexually aroused.
It was reported in the New Scientist that showed that just as men can have trouble achieving an erection if the flow of blood to the genitals is impared, so too women also rely on good genital blood flow to get aroused.
The researchers compared the sexual function of pre-menopausal women with and without hyperlipedemia. They discovered that women with the condition reported significantly lower scores when their arousal, orgasm, lubrication and sexual satisfaction was measured.
32% of the women with abnormal blood cholesterol levels scored so low as to be diagnosed with female sexual dysfunction, while only 9% of the women with normal blood lipid levels had this condition.
The research indicates that female sexual arousal is connected to organic diseases in the same way that men’s sexual problems are. The full study can be read in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.