When Love Doesn’t Work: Sexual disorders
With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, many people are reflecting on their own issues with their relationships. We look back on the initial days of romance with fondness and wonder why things are no longer the same. We ponder if we should bring up all those niggling little annoyances – the lateness, the obsession with their phone, your waning sex life.
Like fighting about their family, experiencing problems with your sex life is so widespread as to be practically a hallmark of a long relationship. But while some waning in sexual desire is a normal part of a relationship and sex may disappear all together during difficult or stressful times, consistent problems in the bedroom may be a sign of a sexual disorder. Sexual disorders require medical assessment and treatment.
To understand sexual disorders, it is necessary to understand that sex is a multistage process and difficulties can be encountered on every step.
The process
Painful Sex
Although problems in most of these areas can be relatively normal, painful sex is an area which should be followed up on. Sometimes painful sex may be due to a benign cause (such as a yeast infection or a need for lubrication) but many are serious and require medical treatment.
For example, sexually transmitted infections are a common cause for both genders. Other serious causes are:
Men
- Peyronie’s Disease
- Prostatitis
- Urinary Tract Infections
- Psoriasis
- Phimosis
- Paraphimosis
Women
- Endometriosis
- Retroverted uterus
- Vaginismus: an involuntary spasm in the vaginal muscles
- Pelvic inflammatory disease
- Vaginal infections
- Vulvodynia: Pain in the vulva area that comes on only when touched, such as in intercourse.
Both men and women however will often put off seeing their doctor about these issues due to embarrassment. They may hope that the issue will naturally resolve itself. This is not recommended however. The condition may be caused by a serious underlying problem that will worsen untreated or the sexual disorder may worsen as it has caused ongoing stress or relationship problems.
If you feel too embarrassed to talk to your GP about these problems, our men’s and women’s health clinics provide you to specialists in the field of sexual health, no referral required. Consider it our valentine’s gift to you.
