Other symptoms that may hide complicated and ambivalent feelings include overt sexual complaints such as loss of libido. If the patient is taking the oral contraceptive pill the complaint can present a complex problem. While it is possible that the Pill reduces libido, changing the type of Pill or indeed the method of contraception does not often solve the difficulty. The complaint may be due to several factors. The Pill is sometimes regarded as too safe in preventing pregnancy, so that the element of danger and risk-taking is missing. The woman may feel controlled by the Pill, her natural hormones being supplanted. She may believe that if it was not for the Pill she could refuse sex. Unacknowledged problems in the relationship such as anger and resentment that cannot be expressed openly can lead to avoidance of sex, and the Pill can then be blamed making the problem a medical one for doctors to solve.
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