Cosmopolitan Magazine

What is sexual frustration and how can you deal with it?

Sexual frustration is something that most people have probably felt at one time or another. Whether it's because of an unintentional dry spell, or because you've chosen to swear of dating for a while, we're feeling more frustrated than ever. To help out, we spoke to some experts to explain what sexual frustration actually is and the ways you can deal with it.

In simple terms, sexual frustration means you feel dissatisfied in some way with your sex life. Or as psychosexual and relationship therapist Aoife Drury explains, "Sexual frustration is the incongruity between a person's desired and attained sexual activity." This can incorporate anything, from how often you have sex, or the kind of sex that you have.

Sexual frustration mostly impacts our mental health, says GP Clare Morrison, a medical advisor for MedExpress. "This can include obsessing about sex, anxiety, low mood, lack of self esteem, irritability, and insomnia, all of which are bad for one's mental health."