Have you lost that lovin' feelin'?

I'm going to admit it out loud on the interweb: I've been a wife who made a lame excuse when really I just wasn't that into it. 

This past summer I spent a few vaca days in LA with my childhood friend, Sarah.  She saw me pop a birth control pill and took the chance to tell me she was off the stuff.  I couldn't imagine why she'd quit - my gyno suggested I go on BC when I was twenty years old to reduce my chances of developing endometriosis.  Sarah said she'd gotten off because she wasn't active and since quitting she'd lost ten pounds and FOUND her sex drive.

I was sure my libido was just fine thank you very much and I even had enough left over to fantasize about people who wore fake vampire teeth on TV. 

In my thirty-two years of living I've only had one other person tell me that BC makes you less randy.  But when Sarah mentioned I could lose weight, well, that was a game changer.  I decided to give quitting birth control a chance.  I got off in June of 2011 and have since lost 15 pounds.  Now, this is absolutely due to my new habit of running regularly and eating less.  But the bigger development is that I've FOUND my sex drive, too.  Turns out it was missing.  Maybe it was hiding in my spleen.  Having it back makes me want to run more, eat less, look better in teeninsy lingerie, do it often, etc. etc.  You can see how this could be tied to weight loss.

At one point, I wondered if I'd made all this up in my head.  I asked a gynecologist if birth control really is related to lower steam in the ladies' engines.  He said it was and then explained that contraceptive pills, rings and patches all increase a protein called sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), which then binds to testosterone and decreases its level in a body's circulation.  This is really bad for those of us who actually like sex because testosterone is what drives libido. 

Now that I've been off BC for nine months I think about sex all the time.  My husband isn't complaining, not even when he has to bag it up. 

I've talked to two gynos recently who spoke as if it's common knowledge that birth control reduces libido.  Is it?  Have I been hiding in a cave with my occasional excuse and everyone else knows that birth control puts your sex drive in park?

I've also learned that the FDA failed to give a pass to a testosterone cream for women with low libido.  I feel a conspiracy theory coming on ... does the government want women to seem like prudish withholders when really we're equally as hot-blooded as men?  Meanwhile, back at oppression ranch, Viagra is covered by some health insurance plans.  Apparently men can be faux-virile until they keel over from old age but women can't get a little fuel for the fire.  What the?!

So I'm off birth control for the time being.  And when I get back on it Rush can think me a slut or a prostitute or a chemical-loving bovine.  Sometimes, lately, when I fantasize, I think of myself as ... well, that's my personal business, isn't it? 

I'm not interested in getting pregnant yet or developing endometriosis -- thank goodness I still have the choice -- so this testosterone cream is sounding better and better. 

With all the legislation surrounding birth control and women's health cropping up around the country, I think it's up to all of us - men and women - to keep up with what's going on and available and what is NOT available.  I know I will because once you've found your mojo the last thing you want to do is lose it again.