What is sexual dysfunction?
Sexuality has four phases: desire, arousal, orgasm, and resolution. A sexual disorder occurs when there is a problem in at least one of the first three phases mentioned above. There are disorders or dysfunctions of different types and can be suffered from different causes and cause discomfort at different levels in the sufferer and sexual partners. Sometimes it can even affect the close family and social environment. Sexual dysfunction can have a psychological, physiological origin, or a combination of both.
Can it be treated? And why is it important?
It can be fixed and although some people may try to minimize the problem by denying it or thinking it will fix itself, there is a solution and minimizing it only lengthens and deepens the problem. Being able to maintain satisfactory sexual relationships is important for people’s mental and psychological health, and when there is a deterioration in sexual responses, it affects different areas such as self-esteem, security, and the relationship as a couple.
What types are there?
- Sexual inappetence: this problem occurs when people have no interest in fantasies or sexual activities and as a consequence suffer anxiety or relationship problems.
- Dyspareunia: is the existence of pain of any kind in any of the phases of sexual intercourse. People who suffer from it try to refrain from having relationships to avoid pain.
- Aversion to sex: It is an extreme aversion to sexual contact and is characterized by the systematic avoidance of sexual relations.
- Inhibition of arousal: it is the lack or absence of excitement, although the woman who suffers from it experiences sexual desire and effective sexual stimulation. Women who suffer from it have a lack of lubrication and an absence of vaginal expansion.
- Orgasmic dysfunction: also known as anorgasmia, it is the absence of orgasm or difficulty reaching it despite having normal arousal. It leads to the frustration of women who suffer from it and in the long term to have little sexual desire due to lack of motivation.
- Vaginismus: characterized by the impossibility of penetration of the vagina. It is caused because the woman has an involuntary contraction of the external third of the vagina, preventing any attempt at penetration.
- Erectile dysfunction: it is the inability to achieve an erection of the penis and/or maintain it even if sexual stimulation is sufficient. Men who suffer from it have low self-esteem, insecurity, frustration and anxiety.
- Premature ejaculation: temporal measurements are not used, but rather the man’s perception of being unable to voluntarily control ejaculation in the face of minimal sexual stimulation, either before or during penetrative sexual activity.
- Delayed ejaculation: it is the difficulty of reaching orgasm when there is sufficient stimulation of the penis.
