Shannen Doherty says cancer killed her libido: ‘Sex doesn’t feel good’

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Shannen Doherty is opening up on how her cancer battle has affected her libido and sex life.

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During a chat with model Anne Marie Kortright on an episode of her Let’s Be Clear podcast, Doherty, 52, told listeners about “what cancer does your libido.”

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“I mean, when you’re feeling not great about yourself that’s going to kill your libido — but then…when meds take your libido away, or it makes things not as pleasant, like sex doesn’t feel as good,” Doherty said (per Us Weekly).

The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum recalled a visit with therapist Dr. Sherry Ross during her marriage to former husband Kurt Iswarienko (the pair split last April after 11 years of marriage).

“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. After she was given a sex toy, the Charmed star admitted it “stayed in my bag for a really long time.”

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“I’m turning red just, like, literally talking about it right now,” she said.

Doherty went on to add that aging impacts a woman’s sex drive, but said that throwing medication into the mix can also have an affect.

“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.”

But Doherty, who was first diagnosed with cancer in 2015, said that her health struggles affected her marriage.

“For the last solid couple of years, probably four years … I thought I looked like a boy,” she said. “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.”

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After going into remission in 2017, Doherty broke the news the cancer had returned and was Stage 4 in 2020. It has since spread to her brain and bones.

Last month, the actress revealed a new treatment is helping target the tumour in her brain.

“That it’s actually breaking down that blood-brain barrier is actually a miracle of that drug, a miracle of maybe God intervening and saying, ‘I’m gonna give her a break,’” Doherty said in January. “Sometimes you’re looking for miracles in all the wrong places, and they’re right in front of your face.”

She also divulged that she is open to dating again telling followers that morning TV host Kelly Ripa offered to set her up after she appeared on Live with Kelly and Mark.

“Kelly 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,’” she recalled (per PEOPLE).

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Ripa, 53, then questioned Doherty about her must-haves in a partner. “She started asking me, ‘Like what’s your list? What do you need?’ She was like, ‘Oh, I think I got somebody in mind.’”

Doherty said that she’s confident that Ripa can help her find a partner.

“I was like, dude, just text me and you can,” Doherty added. “You’re 100% the right person to start setting me up. I’m fine with that.”

In a November chat with PEOPLE, Doherty said she was open to finding love again after she and Iswarienko called it quits.

“I was not ready at all before three weeks ago,” she said at the time. “And something happens. There’s always a trigger, just a moment that you have, somebody says something to you, your ex says one thing to you and you’re like, ‘OK, yeah, I’m good. I’m good.’ I have closure and I can move on in a really healthy way.”

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