Transcript of
Female sexual dysfunction
Female sexual dysfunction covers an array of issues.
Dyspareunia is painful intercourse.
Anorgasmia, which is the loss of orgasm or never being able to have an orgasm.
Vaginismus where the muscles around the entrance to the vagina clamp up
and it means penetration is nigh on impossible or very sore.
And then we've got disorder of desire, loss of arousal, hyposexual disorder,
which is where you have no desire whatsoever,
or hyper where perhaps you want more sex than your partner wants.
And sometimes we also come across women
who have some form of inhibition around sex.
It's not uncommon for women to have any form of sexual dysfunction.
We have to take into account all sorts of life stages in this as well.
It could well be that they've just had a baby,
they may think of themselves as more of a mum now rather than a partner.
And later on in life women can suffer through the menopause.
I think a lot of women have been given all sorts of strange messages,
or mixed messages, about what it is to be a woman
and what it is to be a sexual woman.
So what we'll do is look at their attitudes, what they learnt about sex,
where and how they learnt about sex.
And all of these things can actually contribute to how they then behave
or feel about themselves as sexual beings.
When women come in and report a loss of desire,
which is quite a common problem for a lot of women,
we have to make sure that it's not got its roots in any medical place.
Once that's done, we look around and see what the psychological issues may be.
It could be that they're having other problems with their partner
and are not able to talk about it.
It might also be about looking at
how they feel about themselves and their body.
So exploring those issues. It is beneficial to talk to a therapist,
because if it's distressing for you
then it's something you need to address on your own behalf.
And you might feel much better about yourself as a sexual being,
and as a woman, if you can address the difficulties you are experiencing.
