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Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive???
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Jeff Spicoli
Oct 13, 09 15:07
Post #1 of 153 (7910 views)
Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive???
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Since this is mostly an anonymous forum, lets have some opinions here. I am a chiropractor who works mainly with the metabolic side of health. I have studied the immune system intensely and have come to this conclusion.
High end triathlon training (10-30 hours a week...just threw those numbers out there) is not a healthy thing for most people to be doing. And for women on birth control, its worse.
Keep in mind, this is from someone who has done 70 tris and is signed up for IM Austria next summer.
How many of your female friends have an adequate sex drive? I am not talking about mid pack people. I am describing those people that are on the podium in their age groups consistently and/or are overall winners at many races each year.
Here is what happens to women. Many are on birth control and combined with an incredible amount of adrenal stress, they start to work their thryoid tissue overtime. After a couple of years of doing this, their bodies begin to fall apart. They dont sleep as well, they are chronically fatigued (which they blame on "training",)libido sucks and so on.
They end up with undiagnosed autoimmune disease, and are given synthroid, estrogens or other hormones because their docs don't understand how to treat them.
Am I wrong....agree or flame away.
J
msuguy512
Oct 13, 09 15:10
Post #2 of 153 (7891 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [Jeff Spicoli]
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I thought most birth control pills were on the banned substance list, or thats what i heard anyways
Devlin
Oct 13, 09 15:17
Post #3 of 153 (7831 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [Jeff Spicoli]
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I'd be surprised if a lot of them were on birth control. A lot of female high level endurance athletes have amenorrhea, because their body fat levels don't support menstruation.
And why would it be different? Men or women, high levels of endurance training knock down the sex drive quite a bit.
John
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DawnT
Oct 13, 09 15:21
Post #4 of 153 (7802 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [Jeff Spicoli]
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In my experience, this happens with or without birth control pills and with or without triathlon training in the mix. Most women have to work on their sex drive, unlike most men. When you have kids, a job, a house, bills, etc, the stress and lack of sleep can do horrible things to a woman's libido.
I'd be interested to hear if you feel the same about pro/elite men. Is the training that they're doing having a similar effect on their libido? Is your theory that the difference is the birth control pills that many women are on?
rroof
Oct 13, 09 15:22
Post #5 of 153 (7794 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [Jeff Spicoli]
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So, are you trying to say that an autoimmune disease (i.e. rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, etc.) can be brought on by "excessive" endurance training? Maybe you are you confused on the term?
____________________________________
Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD
mcdoublee
Oct 13, 09 15:22
Post #6 of 153 (7794 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [Jeff Spicoli]
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I read somewhere that testosterone levels control women's sex drive... If any of the pros are, eh, supplementing, I would expect them to have quite vigorous sex drives.
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MC Double E
Chocolate Elvis
Oct 13, 09 15:35
Post #7 of 153 (7690 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [Jeff Spicoli]
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Although I don't have an answer to this highly scientific question, I do utilize sex drive as my major indicator of overtraining. If it's low I go slow. If it's high it's time to fly. At least that's how I role.
Mr. Blonde
Oct 13, 09 15:57
Post #8 of 153 (7576 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [Jeff Spicoli]
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I'm pretty sure they all want to get lei'd. Ah, I couldn't help it...
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More Me
tri-ath-UH-lete
Oct 13, 09 15:58
Post #9 of 153 (7571 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [rroof]
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Not to support anyone's argument (with which I'm not familiar), I did treat a patient with dupuytren's contracture (thought to have some autoimmune risk factor/relationship) that resolved once he stopped applying androgel with that hand. Actually, he discontinued androgel entirely, but had been applying it to his chest with the affected hand.
I have a surf-buddy who is a pharmacist----he scratched his head over that one...wasn't familiar with any similar reports (generally skin reactions, but not fascia). Who knows what the relationship was, but onset and resolution timed exactly with the steroid creme. Weird.
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tigerchik
Oct 13, 09 15:59
Post #10 of 153 (7560 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [Jeff Spicoli]
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I wanted to use that topic for my thesis last year but my advisor said NO.
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mmm, pi!
tigerchik
Oct 13, 09 16:02
Post #11 of 153 (7530 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [Jeff Spicoli]
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... I'm also curious,
In Reply To:
"High end triathlon training (10-30 hours a week...just threw those numbers out there) is not a healthy thing for most people to be doing. And for women on birth control, its worse. "
If the last sentence is true: is it better to be training that much and NOT on birth control?
In Reply To:
They end up with undiagnosed autoimmune disease, and are given synthroid, estrogens or other hormones because their docs don't understand how to treat them.
Is it NOT an autoimmune disease? (I am just trying to understand) ... how SHOULD it be treated?
That may be out of your scope as a chiropractor - I don't know. But maybe someone else could answer.
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mmm, pi!
tigerchik
Oct 13, 09 16:05
Post #12 of 153 (7497 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [Devlin]
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I'd be surprised if a lot of them were on birth control. A lot of female high level endurance athletes have amenorrhea, because their body fat levels don't support menstruation.
Most amenhorrea is treated with BCP.
Ammenhorrea is NOT only caused by a lack of body fat. There are a lot of factors - that is one of them - recent research points to a caloric deficit (energy imbalance) as the primary cause. I've posted something in the womens forum about a big study just done regarding this - ACSM Position Stand on the Female Athlete Triad. Was publsihed last spring I believe.
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mmm, pi!
peterwong
Oct 13, 09 16:14
Post #13 of 153 (7451 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [Jeff Spicoli]
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Why would one use birth control if one has no sex drive?
tigerchik
Oct 13, 09 16:17
Post #14 of 153 (7415 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [peterwong]
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ha, that's a good question.
I'm pretty sure you're just joking, but the serious answer is that BC provides bone-protective estrogen for women not manufacturing enough of it on their own (amenhorrea).
I'm seriously interested in this topic and hope we can get some smart people to chime in.
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mmm, pi!
desert dude
Oct 13, 09 16:18
Post #15 of 153 (7409 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [peterwong]
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just bc you have no sex drive doesn't mean you aren't going to have sex.
Brian Stover
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Skibum232
Oct 13, 09 16:34
Post #16 of 153 (7315 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [Jeff Spicoli]
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Come on Spicoli, out with it. You're looking for 'volunteers' to test your thesis.
Interesting topic to discuss though.
***
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BIGZACH
Oct 13, 09 16:40
Post #17 of 153 (7266 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [desert dude]
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In Reply To:
just bc you have no sex drive doesn't mean you aren't going to have sex.
Still works half limp
Team Schwinn
Oct 13, 09 16:43
Post #18 of 153 (7237 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [Jeff Spicoli]
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As someone else mentioned, sex drive in both men and women is driven by testosterone levels (in addition to lots of other things, just keeping it simple) and as far as I know, endurance training can absolutely lower testosterone over time. So from that POV, I would think both men and women, doing serious endurance training would suffer in the libido department.
NOTE: I am not a medical professional...just regurgitating stuff I have read and been shared with by physicians.
Mito Chondria
Oct 13, 09 17:08
Post #19 of 153 (7104 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [Jeff Spicoli]
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I agree with you, endurance training to the "extreme" is not healthy and even more so for women than it is for men. It would be interesting to see some hormonal data of a group of female athletes throughout the season.
“The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” -Michelangelo
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kaolelo
Oct 13, 09 17:16
Post #20 of 153 (7067 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [Jeff Spicoli]
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do you have any evidence of any kind on "wear" on the thyroid or the pathophysiology of autoimmune diseases? otherwise, i would agree with the other posters that libido is mostly controlled by testosterone in both males and females, and also is not connected to total body fat (although adipose cells are involved with the regulation of sex hormones, specifically estrogen), and may be more related to caloric intake.
rroof
Oct 13, 09 17:21
Post #21 of 153 (7022 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [tri-ath-UH-lete]
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In Reply To:
Not to support anyone's argument (with which I'm not familiar), I did treat a patient with dupuytren's contracture (thought to have some autoimmune risk factor/relationship) that resolved once he stopped applying androgel with that hand. Actually, he discontinued androgel entirely, but had been applying it to his chest with the affected hand.
I have a surf-buddy who is a pharmacist----he scratched his head over that one...wasn't familiar with any similar reports (generally skin reactions, but not fascia). Who knows what the relationship was, but onset and resolution timed exactly with the steroid creme. Weird.
Oh boy. Dupytren's contracture is NOT an autoimmune disease either. There *may* be a familial tendency, but that it not what an autoimmune disease is.
Interesting in that it can be treated with steroid injections into the fibromatous nodules as well. Who knows why his "resolved" after the androgel use. Personally I like collagenase enzyme injection to break down the collagen cross linking. I haven't found the new topical calcium channel blockers with electrophoresis (or whatever ion transport drives it) very effective.
____________________________________
Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD
medTri
Oct 13, 09 17:24
Post #22 of 153 (7006 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [Jeff Spicoli]
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If I recall Susan Williams's daughter is named Sydney because a pregnancy put off her Olympic dream...
tri-ath-UH-lete
Oct 13, 09 17:30
Post #23 of 153 (6971 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [rroof]
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In Reply To:
In Reply To:
Oh boy. Dupytren's contracture is NOT an autoimmune disease either. There *may* be a familial tendency, but that it not what an autoimmune disease is.
Interesting in that it can be treated with steroid injections into the fibromatous nodules as well. Who knows why his "resolved" after the androgel use. Personally I like collagenase enzyme injection to break down the collagen cross linking. I haven't found the new topical calcium channel blockers with electrophoresis (or whatever ion transport drives it) very effective.
Woah, woah WOAAAAAH! I never said it was an AI disorder....just stated that there's some sort of relationship. If you disagree, go after the
American College of Rheumatology
.
And mine was just a clinical observation. That's all. If I read your response incorrectly, then I'm sorry for my reaction. Otherwise, save the lectures for the classroom.
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Haim
Oct 13, 09 17:31
Post #24 of 153 (6967 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [Jeff Spicoli]
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"Here is what happens to women. Many are on birth control and combined with an incredible amount of adrenal stress, they start to work their thryoid tissue overtime. After a couple of years of doing this, their bodies begin to fall apart. They dont sleep as well, they are chronically fatigued (which they blame on "training",)libido sucks and so on."
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It's not just women. Men experience the same issues - minus the birth control part. A few years ago when I was in this same situation,my hormone levels (cortisol, testosterone, T3, T4, etc.) as well as my neurotransmitter levels were all way out of whack. It is not just a result of the stress of high level training. The rest of life tends to pile on too.
Haim
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"Sometimes you need to think INSIDE the box!" -- ME
"Why squirrel hate me?"
Haim
Oct 13, 09 17:42
Post #25 of 153 (2886 views)
Re: Do Pro/Ellte Women Have A Sex Drive??? [mcdoublee]
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"If any of the pros are, eh, supplementing, I would expect them to have quite vigorous sex drives. "
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Based on the number of pro women that have ever shown any "interest" in me, I would have to conclude that pro women are definitely NOT "supplementing" ;)
Haim
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"Sometimes you need to think INSIDE the box!" -- ME
"Why squirrel hate me?"
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