Sexual Dysfunction and Your Mental Health (I)

In your day to day routine, solicited or not, I am certain you have come across advertisement of orthodox medication, herbal medications, certain ‘natural remedies’ and even charms that seek to improve sexual performance and, cure sexual dysfunctions. In the not so distant past, it seemed that males were all that mattered when it came to increasing sexual satisfaction. These days, there has been a rise in products and services tailored to improve the sexual experiences of women and also to cure certain dysfunctions that they may be facing during sexual encounters. What I find missing most of the time, which indeed plays a vital role in the sexual experience, is the psychological approach to understanding and treating sexual dysfunctions. In today’s post, we will delve into the psychological dimension of what sexual dysfunctions are, the various kinds that exist and how our mental health or issues that affect our mental health can cause these dysfunctions.

Sexual dysfunctions are generally problems with a person’s ability to initiate, engage in, enjoy or achieve satisfaction from a sexual encounter. Most models that talk about sexual dysfunctions are based on a sexual response cycle. This cycle consists of the desire, arousal, orgasm, and resolution phases. Thus, sexual dysfunctions are considered as the disruptions or deficiencies in sexual desire (interest in sex), sexual arousal (subjective sense of sexual arousal and physiological signs of arousal), orgasm (involuntary muscular contractions and release of sexual tension) and sexual resolution (relaxation of the body after orgasm). 

Traditionally, sexual dysfunctions were approached and treated as though they were diseases, even though the term craftily avoids mention of it as such. This is not to say that there are not sexual dysfunctions that are purely biological. However, over time, knowledge of sexual health has evolved, and more interdisciplinary approaches (biological, cultural environmental, social, and psychological) have been applied to understanding the complexities of human sexuality. In many cases, factors that are not biological, that cause sexual dysfunctions are inseparable. As such, it is common to find an interplay of social, cultural environmental or psychological factors contributing to the emergence of a particular sexual dysfunction. However, it has been noted that psychological components are more predominant. 

In this series, we will look at the major kinds of sexual dysfunctions as documented by the 5^th edition diagnostic statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5) and some of their causes.  These include:

1. Erectile Disorder 
2. Female sexual interest/arousal disorder
3. Male hypoactive sexual desire disorder
4. Delayed ejaculation
5. Premature (early) ejaculation
6. Genito-pelvic pain/penetration disorder
7. Female orgasmic disorder 

Share this post, drop your questions and comments, and join us in our subsequent posts in this series as we talk about what these dysfunctions are and their causes.