There Are Two Types Of Low Sexual Desire In Women, Research Finds

"Low sexual desire" can be a loaded phrase—it can sometimes imply there's a "normal" or "ideal" level of sexual desire that people should strive for, below which there is supposedly a problem. In reality, not being that interested in sex isn't inherently a cause for concern. It's only a problem for someone if that specific person feels it's a problem in their own life.

All that said, plenty of people do deal with lower libido and do find it distressing—that's true for about 9% of women between ages 18 and 44, according to one 2016 study1.

This group of women had low sexual desire (relative to other women), and they also dealt with both low sexual satisfaction and very low relationship satisfaction. In other words, these women had low desire, felt unhappy with their sex lives, and also felt very unhappy with their relationships in general. They also reported the highest general life stress of all the groups of women.

"A possible explanation for this pattern is that relationship distress was more primary for this group and may have developmentally preceded their sexual dissatisfaction," the researchers explain in the paper on their findings. In other words, this group of women was likely already dealing with problems in their relationship, which then put a damper on their sex lives.

This group of women also had low sexual desire (again, relative to other women), but while they dealt with low sexual satisfaction just like the globally distressed women, the group of women actually had pretty average levels of relationship satisfaction. In other words, their relationships in general were pretty good, and their issues were contained to the bedroom.

"These results suggest discontent with sexual, but not nonsexual, aspects of the relationship," the researchers write.

One of the biggest commonalities between the two groups of women with low sexual desire was their poor sexual communication, in comparison to a third group of women categorized as having average sexual desire.

"A large body of research shows that skillful sexual communication is strongly associated with sexual satisfaction in couples' relationships," the researchers explain. "It is possible that avoiding discussions of sexual topics, including preferences, dislikes, and concerns, may be one factor that contributes to low sexual desire in these groups." 

Notably, the two groups of low-desire women had similar levels of sexual desire, suggesting that just measuring how much desire a person has isn't enough to tell the full story of how women experience desire.

Desire is complex, and there are many factors that can contribute to its decline, from physical factors to psychological factors to relationship issues. 

"It is possible that women with low sexual desire share a similar outcome but have followed unique trajectories to get to this point," the researchers write. "Our results suggest that women with low desire not only differ qualitatively from women with average desire but also from one another in meaningful ways."