When Boardroom Stress Affects Bedroom Performance

As a successful executive, you know that life can get pressured, fulfilling, and challenging – yet never dull. We all know that diligent work truly pays off – from late nights in the office to the highs of landing a new major client. You know that sometimes you need to work hard and play hard.

Let off some steam, Host client dinners. Facilitate lively team meetings. It’s an amazing life and one that you’ve built purely off the back of your relentless work and executive talent. Yet it can come at a price. Executive stress might fire up your performance at work, but it can also power down your performance in the bedroom. Here’s why.

From the Boardroom to the Bedroom: Fighting Erectile Dysfuntion

Stress can cause major hormonal issues. It can hit your immune system hard, with sexual performance often the first casualty. In fact, stress is a leading cause of erectile dysfunction. Right now, it affects around 30 million American men and 100 million men worldwide.

But why is the link between the pressure at work and performance in the bedroom so powerful? One major reason for this connection lies within the hormonal powerhouse of the body – the HPA (Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenocortical) Axis. To keep your body healthy & balanced, your HPA Axis constantly oversees the secretion of every adrenal hormone you need, when you need it.

It’ll flood your body with testosterone during, say, a major session in the weights room. It excretes cortisol, a stress hormone if you are caught in a riptide and you need to think and act fast to swim your way out. HPA ultimately maintains the production of all steroids that you need for peak performance in your personal and professional life to occur.

Testosterone – the heaviest hitter when it comes to winning in the boardroom and the bedroom – is the most powerful when it comes to feeling supercharged in the bedroom and the boardroom, enabling greater strength, virility, focus & all-round performance. Sounds great so far, right? Not always.

When the demands of a high-flying career begin to dominate your life and you become more and more stressed, the HPA Axis can be the first to suffer. And when it does, forget that great laser-sharp focus at work, or that incredible, powered-up sex life. As hormones get out of whack because of a dysfunctional HPA, your ability to perform at work & in your intimate life can become severely compromised, too.

An Early Warning System

Here’s an amazing fact. Your penis can act as an early warning system for heart disease. In fact, many studies confirm this phenomenon to be true. Why? Because when the HPA Axis is affected, it can rapidly undermine the performance of the cardiovascular system. That means your body becomes less able to rapidly provide blood to the different muscles and organs of the body when they most need it.

A perfect example? The penis. An erection depends completely on a great blood supply. If it cannot become become rapidly engorged with blood following sexual stimuli, it will stay flaccid and limp. This is exactly why an early sign of cardiovascular trouble can be erectile dysfunction.

That’s why we always recommend getting help for your erectile issues as soon as you notice any issues – to rule out more serious issues such as heart disease.

The Pressure to Perform

A high-powered, uber-stressful career can lead to amazing financial rewards. However, it can also lead to health issues. A dysfunctional HPA Axis, for example, over-stimulated by long-term stress, can over-secrete cortisol (a stress hormone), which can damage your work and sex life. Overly-high levels of norepinephrine (which increases heart rate and blood pumping from the heart) can also cause physical damage.

And dampened levels of testosterone (a powerful anabolic steroid and sex hormone)? That can majorly impair your emotional health & physical performance. Numerous studies tell us that compromised testosterone levels can majorly impact your sex life, whilst chronically high levels of norepinephrine can lead to erectile dysfunction. That’s because norepinephrine enables contractility of the penis during the erectile process – too much and your erections become at risk.

Meanwhile, excessive cortisol can down-regulate testosterone. It can also contribute directly to impotence, and can even lead to burnout, depression, and a lower sperm count. The end result? A stressful career that could ultimately steal the joy from your intimate relationships.