Shannen Doherty’s ups and downs with cancer include a diminished libido and sex drive.
“When you’re feeling not great about yourself, that’s going to kill your libido,” Doherty, 52, revealed during the Sunday, February 25, episode of her “Let’s Be Clear” podcast. “But then when [cancer] actually impacts your libido, when meds take your libido away, or it makes things not as pleasant, like, sex doesn’t feel as good.”
The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum explained that cancer alters your sex drive, which is what led her to go see gynecologist Dr. Sherry Ross with her longtime pal and model Anne Marie Kortright.
“She took me because, you know, I specifically said to her, ‘I need to do something. Things aren’t working and this isn’t the life that I want to live,’” Doherty recalled, noting that at the time she didn’t want her husband, Kurt Iswarienko, “to live like this.” (Doherty and Iswarienko filed for divorce in April 2023 after 11 years of marriage.)
While at the doctor consultation, Doherty revealed she was given a sex toy to help boost her libido. “I think it stayed in my bag for a really long time,” Doherty confessed. “I’m turning red just, like, literally talking about it right now.”
The actress pointed out that women in general eventually hit a rut with their sex drive, which is only worsened by cancer or other illnesses. Doherty announced in 2015 that she was diagnosed with cancer, and two years, she later was in remission. Her breast cancer returned in 2020 as stage IV, and by fall 2023, it had spread to her bones.
“Perimenopause, menopause, just getting older, all of it impacts not just your exterior, it doesn’t just impact your skin,” Doherty said. “It’s also impacting the whole way that your body is reacting and responding and then you add to that, cancer meds, you add to that, chemo, and it just zaps you of everything.”
She confessed: “It takes away your confidence. It takes away your identity.”
Doherty recalled not feeling like herself during the first few years of her cancer journey, part of which led to not enjoying sex.
“For the last solid couple of years, probably four years, [I] have felt like a boy. I thought I looked like a boy,” she remembered. “There were other things, now I know, were playing into it. At the end of the day, me feeling like that didn’t help in my relationship. It was impacting me.”
That feeling has since dissipated, and Doherty teased earlier this month that her friends are trying to get her back in the dating game.
“Kelly [Ripa] is awesome because I just saw her when I did her show, and at the commercial break, she was like, ‘Are you ready? Are you ready to date? Are you ready for a boyfriend? I’m going to find you someone,’” Doherty shared on the February 5 episode of her podcast.
The 90210 alum was totally on board with the idea, saying, “I was like, ‘Dude, just text me and you can. You’re 100 percent the right person to start setting me up.’ I’m fine with that.”
