Is that really an aphrodisiac?

Goat testicles boiled in milk, in ancient India; oysters in Rome; coriander in Arabia; honeyed mead in medieval times; fresh snake blood in Asia; bat blood, reindeer penises, shark fins and ground rhino horns ~ what do all of these have in common?
They all, at one time or another, have been acclaimed as aphrodisiacs.

Aphrodisiac by definition is just about anything that awakens or increases sexual desire — be it your own, or the object of your desire's, named from the Greek goddess of sex and beauty, Aphrodite.

They are all as effective as Spanish Fly (which by the way is not fly, but the dried remains of beetles that irritate the urogenital tract). These aphrodisiacs are folklore at best and hazardous to your health at worst.

According to an article in Forbes, The Food and Drug Administration has declared "There is no scientific proof that any over-the-counter aphrodisiacs work to treat sexual dysfunction," while acknowledging that its findings "clash with a 5,000-year tradition of pursuing sexual betterment through use of plants, drugs and magic."

People still desire an aphrodisiacal quick fix because stirring arousal can be tricky. "We're all unique individuals and we all respond differently to different things," notes Dr. Beverly Whipple, a professor emerita at Rutgers University and president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex, who co-coined the term "G-Spot" back in 1980.

At the source of human sexual desire is the "core erotic personality". Each person has an image or thought of what they feel is sexually desirous. It is different for everyone. Factors that go into that could be specific age, hair color, build, race, style of dress, or other objects like fur-lined handcuffs, even different types of behaviors feed into the desire.

According to Dr. William Granzig, dean of clinical sexology at Maimonides University, “Whatever it is in particular, the sexual template is believed to develop early on during a childhood erotic experience — perhaps as early as age three or four — and it sticks with you for life.
The difficulty of maintaining sexual desire over the long term, of course, is that if your partner falls outside of your sexual template — or you fall outside theirs — sooner or later one of you is going to lose interest.
Many people whose template is not, say, age-specific can have great sex throughout their lives, but if you're only attracted to 20-year-olds, once your partner hits 30, your desire will decrease.
Unless, of course, you can figure out some ways to spice things up."

The spicing it up thing is where things can get complicated. Men and women are wholly different sexual creatures.
For most men, of course, sex is all about orgasms: it's culturally imbued in them to desire sex, and they possess a superb feedback device for letting them know when they're in the mood.
Yet most women have been conditioned to regard sex as more sensual, with sexual satisfaction often attainable without orgasm, and the desire for orgasms often reliant upon sensual needs being met first.
As such, women are far more likely then men to emphasize psychological satisfaction in their sexual relationships. I guess by now, we know that sexual pleasure can be achieved from a more emotional level for women. (Well most women).

Ok guys, are you still with me?

Here is what I found interesting….

“In recent times, it has been revealed women to have greater sexual capacity than men. After all, unlike the wham-bam-snore capabilities of men, women can go not only go all night if they want to, but have more powerful orgasms: six to ten contractions on average, versus four to six contractions for the guys. "When it comes to sexual capacity, men are wimps," says Dr. Robert Hatfield, a clinical psychologist and sex therapist at the University of Cincinnati. "
Over the past 15 years I've notice a shift with my patients, with most of the 'I'm-not-in-the-mood' complaints now coming from men."
This has inspired a $1.7 billion of sales in Viagra. Much to the success of the sales of this little blue pill, there has been a recent push in both genders to find a remedy for decrease in sexual desire. Outside distractions are a great contributor to this like job, careers, the pressures of the daily grind.

Ok everyone, to sum it up… there are no special aphrodisiacs, according to Dr. Granzig, “"Your biggest sex organ is the one between your ears. What is desire, after all, than the hope that you can fulfill your sexual fantasies? And that's all in your mind."