Well, a sad woman may not enjoy sex too much. A hungry one may not have energy to do it. And childbirth requires some recovering time... A new research made by a team led by Dr Frances A. Carter of the Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Otago University in New Zealand, and published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, shows that decreased sex drive in women experiencing mental conditions (like anorexia and depression) is impacted; so happens with fresh mothers, too, but in quite different ways.

The results show that women with psychiatric disorders seem to have more severe sex issues than in the case of new mothers. In fact, the research team discovered that women with either depressed or anorexic women usually had more sex parties than subjects who had just turned into mothers, but they experienced more issues connected to the proper sexual contact.

"This suggests that anorexia and depression have similar effects on a woman's sex life, while childbirth has a different sort of impact," wrote the authors.

The research was based on questionnaires completed by 76 women enrolled in three researches. 10 subjects were anorexic, 24 experienced severe depression; and 42 were in less than 2 months post partum period. All subjects had stable sex partners.

The team discovered that 80 % of the anorexic women and 79 % of the depressed ones had sexual encounters in the last 14 days, while just 50 % of the new mothers did. But while none of the new mothers reported sexual issues, about 30 % of the women with mental conditions reported this.

"The fact that new mothers had sex less often is not surprising," wrote the authors.

No sexual issues in the case of new mother is "more optimistic" than other investigations, that "suggested that sexual difficulties were the norm". Still, the team warns that the study was made on a small pool, and further researches are required.