Docs need to get to bottom of sex lives

23 November 2015 - 02:09 By Nivashni Nair

Sex: Doctors don't ask. Patients don't tell. Most South African patients and doctors shy away from discussing sexual and intimacy disorders in consultations.The African Society for Sexual Medicine, which holds its congress, themed Sexuality and Intimacy, in Durban this week, is on a drive to encourage medical professionals to raise questions about sexual health during consultations."The figures worldwide of doctor and patient interactions show that only 25% of patients talk and only 25% of doctors ask about sex."That figure has climbed up to about 30% since Viagra."The reason for that is Viagra put male dysfunction into the open," society president Dr Prithy Ramlachan said.He said sexuality was never fully discussed in families, homes, doctors' rooms and schools."We are faced with the difficulty that sex is a topic that is not brought up easily and neither is it addressed easily."Women are more comfortable discussing sexual difficulties because they visit their health facilities more often than men."When a man cannot have an erection, the consultation makes him feel muted and that picture is not easy for him to deal with," Ramlachan said.He said remaining silent on sexual difficulties led to serious social and health implications."While these are not absolute, these are figures that are garnered from data from divorces. One third of divorces occur because of sexual difficulties. If we can address these issues we can save families."Couples find it hard to talk about sexual difficulty."If we can get professionals to ask the question and raise the issue, we can start to ease the burden on couples."He said problems with sexuality and intimacy were linked to diseases like cancer, diabetes and HIV-Aids."Almost 60% to 70% men with diabetes have some form of erectile difficulty. Now straightaway you know that is going to impact badly on relationships."Up to 12% of men who have depression have sexual difficulty. Men who have erectile difficulty have depression."Men who have erectile difficulty can have underlying heart disease. Men that have erectile dysfunction can have undiagnosed diabetes, hypertension and heart disease," Ramlachan explained.Desire, arousal and pain disorders are common complaints from women as well."Women talk about loss of arousal and orgasmic difficulties and if you are diabetic you have all of that."He said raising the link between sexuality and many diseases during consultations would lead to "better care, better outcome and relationships throughout Africa"."Sexual health is an integral part of good health and this has been declared by the World Health Organisation."..

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