Non-hormonal methods of lowering libido?

Does anyone here have any information and/or experiences about herbs, drugs, or supplements that can lower sex drive without messing with hormones in anyway? I'd like to remove my libido and sexual urges totally without messing with my hormones in anyway, as my overall health and well being are important to me.

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Is this something you have personally tried or still use? I have some direct experience with EFT, my therapist had me do a session of it with him, although the goal wasn't releasing sexual tension, That's an interesting concept. I might try it for that purpose with the intent of that if I can find the pamphlet he gave me on it or from an online resource. Thank you!

I'm still open to ideas from others as well!

http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2007/09/10/seeking-ways-to/
This article recommends chaste tree berry, and debunks the claim of saltpeter being an effective anaphrodisiac; I've seen it listed on other articles listing anaphrodisiacs, but it's dangerous to use.

http://www.ehow.com/way_5414563_herbs-decrease-libido.html
This article lists more herbs that can be taken to lower libido, and also lists some reputable sources where they can be ordered from.

Be careful with herbal supplements, and order from reputable sources. A lot of herbal supplements sold on the shelves in the US are of questionable effectiveness and safety, because there is little regulation over them.

I'm looking more into this topic, because some information about anaphrodisiacs is inaccurate, so I'm trying to filter what is accurate from what isn't.

Hormones run everything. You can’t eat food or walk up a flight of stairs without messing with your hormones. Could you specify that qualifier a little more?

Admin wrote:A lot of herbal supplements sold on the shelves in the US are of questionable effectiveness and safety, because there is little regulation over them.

Perhaps advisable to stick to companies that have been independently quality-certified by one of these organizations:
Natural Products Association (NPA)
NSF International
US Pharmacopoeia (USP)
ConsumerLab.com

Tranquilizers.

Panache wrote:Hormones run everything. You can’t eat food or walk up a flight of stairs without messing with your hormones. Could you specify that qualifier a little more?

Admin wrote:A lot of herbal supplements sold on the shelves in the US are of questionable effectiveness and safety, because there is little regulation over them.

Perhaps advisable to stick to companies that have been independently quality-certified by one of these organizations:
Natural Products Association (NPA)
NSF International
US Pharmacopoeia (USP)
ConsumerLab.com

You're essentially right. What I mean by that specifically is that I've heard of people taking anti-anndrogen drugs that essentially block the action of testosterone to lower the sex drive. What I'm saying is that alot of my hobbies and interests, such as weightlifting, martial arts, hiking, swimming, etc are physical activites, and I'm not going to sacrifice muscle mass or suffer effects of low testosterone by subjecting myself to chemical castration.

Thank you for the list of herbal suppliers. I read an article about herbal supplements and how some herbal supplements were randomly tested and it was found that most of them either didn't have the herb they said they did or were contaminated with other stuff, so yeah.

The other thing I am considering is getting my SSRI (lexapro) dose increased. They say that it can lower sex drive. I have ben one it since I was 15 or so, I can remember if my sex drive lowered from baseline when I started the med or not, but if it did it didn't do it enough. I've had many liver function tests, urinalyses, checkups, and blood work done since I've been on this med, I know how it affects me, I'm healthy on it. I'm going to look into this, although I am wary when it comes to SSRI's.

There's also communites like this https://www.reddit.com/r/nofap
and articles like this http://www.covenanteyes.com/lemonade/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/the_porn_circuit_covenant_eyes.pdf

I'm not saying they're completely in your interest but they might help, they did for me and they weren't completely in my interests either.

http://www.sciforums.com/threads/decreasing-male-libido.68407/
The original poster of this forum thread tried chastetree berry to lower libido, and he said that it worked for him. I've seen many others say it's effective, but I haven't been able to find any empirical sources showing whether it is reliable at lowering libido or not.

http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Live-In-A-Sexless-Marriage/1155985

Some other anaphrodisiacs were listed here.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3693613/

Chasteberry, and many other herbs according to this study, do seem to affect hormones. 

It seems as if all/most supplements/medications/herbs affecting libido seem to affect hormones in some way. In that case I will be focusing on other methods.

Darkthrone wrote:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3693613/

Chasteberry, and many other herbs according to this study, do seem to affect hormones. 

It seems as if all/most supplements/medications/herbs affecting libido seem to affect hormones in some way. In that case I will be focusing on other methods.

I'll have to look for information on other methods instead, but good job finding that article! I was struggling to find any scientific articles about the subject.

Because libido is dictated by hormones, there is literally no way to affect your libido without affecting your hormonal levels.
 
If you’ve been reading the Flibanserin thread, you’ll know I don’t like this attitude of, “I don’t like this libido. I’ll force it to stop! What thing can I take to force it to go away?” Your libido is the way it is because it must be serving some optimum purpose for your body. If you want a lower libido, you need to change not the libido itself, but the systems of the body, so that a lower libido becomes the optimum state for your body.
 
The body makes sex hormones ultimately because it’s under the impression that you’re going to have sex, and it wants to be ready. Since being able to reproduce has been so important for the continuation of the race, the body hedges its bets…a lot. So what we’ve got to do is convince the body that sex is not going to happen anytime soon and it doesn’t need to be so uber-prepared, and in fact perhaps those resources could be better directed somewhere else.
 
By far the #1 thing I can recommend for reducing sex drive is unerring continence. Increasing sex drive can be a vicious cycle – the more you do it the more you want it – but it can also work in the other direction: the less you do it the less you’ll want it, and the lower your sex drive will get. Absolutely no orgasm will cut off the demand for sex hormone production in a way that even only monthly orgasm will not.
 
For the same reasons, avoiding arousal and sexual thoughts (being chaste) might also help, as these things will also stimulate production of sex hormones. In my experience continence is an essential prerequisite for chastity; without continence everything seems sexual, and with continence even overtly sexual things just seem gross instead of erotic. It’s like going back to having a child’s thinking. The less sex is part of your consciousness, the less your body will be preparing to have it, and the lower your libido will be.
 
Of course, this will have a huge impact on your hormones, as do sexual behaviors.
 
SSRIs are liable to be anti-androgenic as well:
 
La Torre et al. Pharmacological causes of hyperprolactinemia.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2376090/
 
“Antidepressant drugs with serotoninergic activity, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAO-I) and some tricyclics, can cause hyperprolactinemia.”
“Most symptoms of hyperprolactinemia involve the reproductive system and are due to both a direct action of prolactin on target tissues and indirect effects mediated by the decrease in gonadotropin pulsatile secretion, that leads to gonadal dysfunction. The most frequent symptoms of chronic hyperprolactinemia include reproductive dysfunction (anovulation, menstrual irregularity, sub-fertility, decreased estrogen and testosterone production), sexual impairment (diminished libido, erectile dysfunction, retrograde or painful ejaculation, orgasmic dysfunction, impotence), breast pathology (galactorrhea, breast enlargement, possible prolactin – sensitive dysplasia with increased risk for breast cancer), abnormalities associated with chronic hypogonadism (decreased bone mineral density and osteoporosis, increased cardiovascular risk), behavioral and mood alterations (depression, anxiety, hostility, memory deficit, psychosis) (Kinon et al 2003b), possible immunologic depression (Halbreich et al 2003).”

I'm currently on an SSRI and from having had bloodwork and urinalysis done over years seem to be fine on it, but that's a "your mileage my vary" type of thing. I still share your hesitance to rely on medications to solve issues, and have been recently weighing the negatives and positives of the SSRI medication I'm on. I do wonder if it's impacting my libido or not, but if I had to guess I'd say no, as mine seems pretty normal for my age.

Darkthrone wrote:I still share your hesitance to rely on medications to solve issues, and have been recently weighing the negatives and positives of the SSRI medication I'm on. I do wonder if it's impacting my libido or not, but if I had to guess I'd say no, as mine seems pretty normal for my age.

Good luck; I know the issue is a complex one. I know from personal experience that when you’ve been on a drug for years and years, how to even proceed to get off it seems nigh impossible. The stuff I was put on was for a physiological issue (back years ago when I was naïve about health issues), and I imagine going off a psychological drug is an even more delicate process to face. Please don’t feel any pressure to answer this if it’s too personal: do you have possible alternative solutions, for addressing the reasons you were put on it in the first place? Or perhaps you’re wondering whether those reasons even apply anymore.

I just wanted to point out that SSRIs risk the same anti-androgenic issues, though, since you mentioned you were considering upping your dose as a way of affecting your libido, and want to avoid testosterone-blocking drugs.

It’s not really my business, however I hope you can find something that lets you get off it. Drugs that mess with the brain especially freak me out, and I guess I feel protective, that you were put on it when you were just 15! I mean, I’m sure you’d prefer to be off it, all things being equal; it’s not like anyone wants to take pharmaceuticals, it’s just for lack of other options.

I hope you have good luck with whatever approach you decide on.

Essentially I'm trying to figure out how the SSRI's effect me personally and then deciding if I want my dose increased or to get off of the medication. I was put on it for mild depression and anxiety. It has certainly helped, but at the same time it's hard for me to quantify how much it had helped as I have been on the medication awhile.

I believe that if it is affecting my hormones it's doing so minimally, as lab test from ER's, endocrinologists, and routine tests from my primary care doctor over the course of years seem to indicate I'm all around healthy. 

When it comes to actually adjusting the med if I choose to do that I'll just start lowering the dose in increments until I'm off or go to the doctor and tell him my depression and anxiety are worse but that the SSRI helped for a long time and suggest an increased dose. 

However, the more I think about it the more I'd like to possibly use non pharmacological means. Maybe means that will mess with my psychology. If I can somehow disrupt the normal attraction-libido-sex-romance pathways in my brain, like disconnect them so to say, that would be a step forward.

Yes, disconnect the paths that's presumably the goal. (I'm taking the psychologists word that that's how it works.)

Do you have any insight on how this could be achieved? The only things I can think of seem harmful. Using operant conditioning on myself and shocking myself with a shock collar whenever I get aroused doesn't seem like a good idea for some reason.

The main reason I linked the article on the last page is because it caught me onto the pathway theory. Like I said it won't relate a lot to anyone here but I still found some interesting ideas. So try reading that.

So are we talking about ways to reduce one’s sex drive, or ways to affect one’s experience of sexual attraction?

To me these are very different issues. Many asexuals have a sex drive. Does anyone know whether someone with no sex drive can still experience sexual attraction?

If we are getting into ways of modifying one's experience of sexual attraction, would you consider maybe making a new thread for that? It seems like a major issue that could use its own topic.

Panache wrote:So are we talking about ways to reduce one’s sex drive, or ways to affect one’s experience of sexual attraction?

To me these are very different issues. Many asexuals have a sex drive. Does anyone know whether someone with no sex drive can still experience sexual attraction?

Agreed. Those are different. From what I've seen, I've heard of people who can experience sexual attraction, but not libido, such as those who lose theirs, but some may have also been that way.

However, I've also heard some people claim that while it's possible for an asexual person to have a libido (because it isn't directed at anything), that there aren't non-asexuals without libido. To people who agree with this viewpoint, they think anyone without a libido is asexual for not having a physical drive behind their attractions.

If we are getting into ways of modifying one's experience of sexual attraction, would you consider maybe making a new thread for that? It seems like a major issue that could use its own topic.

I think that deserves its own topic. Both of these are complex issues, and to keep this thread from getting too cluttered or confusing, it'd be best for discussions about modifying attraction to have their own topic.

However, I've also heard some people claim that while it's possible for an asexual person to have a libido (because it isn't directed at anything), that there aren't non-asexuals without libido. To people who agree with this viewpoint, they think anyone without a libido is asexual for not having a physical drive behind their attractions. 

I feel that dealing with sexual attraction is easier if you have no libido because of what you said, it removes the drive to act on sexual attraction. 

Removing both would be awesome, though, and I'd love to see a thread on removing sexual attraction.

Another thing to be aware of for anyone using herbs or certain foods to lower libido is that you have to be careful what you take if you take any kinds of medication. Some can nullify the effect of medications, or produce very negative effects when combined with them.

For example, I found out that licorice can't be taken with certain medications. If you aren't sure and take medications, you should speak with your doctor or pharmacist asking if there are any herbs or foods that can't be taken with the medications.

Unfortunately I couldn't find a list showing what libido-lowering herbs or foods can't be taken with what medications. When trying to search for it, nearly all of the results treated low libido like it's a problem people want to treat, and that makes trying to find any information that would benefit people here so difficult.

I don't know if it helps but I went on a website that said foods that lower your sex drive and it said mints and cearal corn flacks help lower testosterone as well as wrapped meats because of the plastic chemicals and some chocolates but I duno if it's a hoaxs.

Also if your going to eat mints like I am they have side effects evdientliy mint is a herb its in peppermint but it's not good for kids (in less in small amounts)or eating too much of it can speed up your heart and they can cause stomach problem if already have stomach problems. But besides that the have good effects too it's really interesting how much mints can help or harm you just don't take more then 5-10. But this is internet facts they are probably all lies my sources was Wikipedia and some other website it's on google you can look it up easily. 

(Sorry if that not very helpful)

PaineAztec21 wrote:I don't know if it helps but I went on a website that said foods that lower your sex drive and it said mints and cearal corn flacks help lower testosterone as well as wrapped meats because of the plastic chemicals and some chocolates but I duno if it's a hoaxs.

Also if your going to eat mints like I am they have side effects evdientliy mint is a herb its in peppermint but it's not good for kids (in less in small amounts)or eating too much of it can speed up your heart and they can cause stomach problem if already have stomach problems. But besides that the have good effects too it's really interesting how much mints can help or harm you just don't take more then 5-10. But this is internet facts they are probably all lies my sources was Wikipedia and some other website it's on google you can look it up easily. 

(Sorry if that not very helpful)

It can be difficult to find reliable information on what lowers libido, but it's good to look into this further.

Corn flakes were originally invented because it was thought that meat and strong flavors were responsible for raising libido, so plain foods were thought to prevent it. I've found a lot of articles listing corn flakes as one of the foods that's reliable at lowering libido, but they don't say if it's due to corn flakes on their own being effective at it due to any ingredients in it, or because of the lifestyle that the first people who ate corn flakes regularly did, or if it's just a myth.

The first people to eat corn flakes regularly did so as part of a very strict vegetarian diet and lifestyle that also avoided sugar, caffeine, alcohol and spices. An article I found said that's the reason, because those people had a protein deficiency.

I saw several articles also list mint, but they don't say if it's peppermint, spearmint or both, but spearmint has been known to lower libido.