In the show "Sans rendez-vous" on Friday on Europe 1, Catherine Blanc responds to a listener, Alexis, who notices a drop in her libido in winter and wonders how to talk about it to her partner.

For the sexologist and psychoanalyst, the human being is not characterized by a seasonality of his sexual desire but he is not for all that disconnected from his environment.

Do the seasons have an impact on our sexuality?

In the program 

Sans rendez-vous

 Friday on Europe 1, the sexologist and psychoanalyst Catherine Blanc answers the question of a listener, Alexis, who notices a drop in her libido in winter despite her attraction still present for her partner.

He wonders if this phenomenon is usual.

Alexis' question

“Every year, at the same time in winter, I have a drop in libido and therefore my sexual desire. It's not the fact that my wife no longer attracts me, it's just that I don't desire for sex. Is this phenomenon explained? Should I tell my partner? "

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Catherine Blanc's response

A priori no, we are not animals.

Finally, we are animals but not like those who have a sex life punctuated precisely by the seasons.

There is no seasonality of our desire, but there is a reading, of course, of its environment.

For some, on the contrary, winter is the extremely cozy time.

The animal skin, the fireplace ... That is for fantasies.

We do not have to have them ... But in this case it can be on the contrary the time for reconciliations because we are not playing tennis, because we are not in making aperitifs with the friends.

Precisely, we are at home and we can live our cozy and potentially very creative sexuality.

But for some of us, winter is complicated: either because it historically refers to sad stories for us, or because during the last winter there was a lot of impediment.

Obviously, that makes it difficult to go outside to feed yourself so that you can fuel the relationship on the inside.

Very classically, there is also a lack of light in winter.

And then there are people who are extremely sensitive.

Their neurotransmitters are very weak, whether it is because of their way of eating, their personal history or a particular stress at that time.

They can in any case be in great difficulty to have hormones like serotonin.

For these people, it is then difficult to have a self-esteem high enough to have an ambition for themselves and then to conquer the other.

Isn't it also because we are cold in winter?

That we want to undress less?

There is an objective reality but it serves all the pretexts.

That is to say that there again, the competence that we have to fight against the cold is a reality.

But there is also the reading that we have from the cold.

If you have a desire, if you are in love with snow, you have only one hope when it is winter ... It is to go skiing, it is to see the snow!

It's to wear a big puffer jacket and go home for a hot tea.

So you don't have this notion of cold.

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But others will flee as soon as they can the season of winter to go to a summer place because in winter they do not feel at peace.

All of this is a clutter that tells a lot of personal things.

Again, we don't all have the same culture, we don't all have the same stories, and we don't bring joy to all seasons in the same way.

So, indeed, we will use in this case the pretext of the cold as one uses the pretexts "tomorrow there is school", of work, of stress or of children.

These are realities but they also allow us to hide our difficulty in finding enthusiasm in ourselves. 

Could treating a possible seasonal depression improve his libido?

Absolutely. That is why I was talking earlier about neurotransmitters. Light therapy, for example, can be absolutely great because people need it. With the confinement, they remained very locked up. They stayed on their screens, often in dimly lit rooms because the rest of the family had to be left in the living rooms. So yes, people have been particularly distressed and depressed. In Alexis' case, there is something of the order of seasonality that plays out in his suffering and the least thing is not to be bearded every winter. But perhaps to go and afford the opportunity to understand what is at stake through a consultation. Open the field of possibilities for a little more joy. Without necessarily talking about sexuality, but at least a little more internal joys. "