“I had two ileostomies. I needed those because of the damage to the ileum from Crohn’s. The symptoms were making me feel absolutely awful. I was experiencing bad abdominal cramps leading up to the operations. It would be fair to say that at various times, I felt less like wanting to engage in intimate sexual activity. I felt less attractive and generally grim. But on each occasion, after I had recovered from surgery and the medication started to kick in, those feelings seemed to return quite naturally.”
It’s often not easy to manage the ups and downs of a chronic illness. Especially the humiliation that can accompany accidents, constipation or diarrhoea. This can often take a toll on our body image; we may feel a loss of confidence and even experience low libido. Flare-ups and/or surgery can exacerbate these feelings even further.
As the body may be strained and fatigued from trying to fight off an IBD flare, it may be natural to have a low libido. But once the body recovers from the flare-up and/or surgery, and medications start to work, libido often increases! It is important to have conversations about these issues with your partner(s) and with your physician if you are noticing changes or are worried about anything.
