Sexual Health Issues and Information

Updated/Revised Date: 10th Oct 2022
Author: Sexual Diversity | Contact: SexualDiversity.org
Additional References: Sexual Health Information Publications

Synopsis: Information regarding contraception, sex and youth, STIs and STDs, puberty, menstruation, infections, and more.

Definition

Sexual Health

Sexual health is a state of physical, mental, and social well-being about sexuality. It requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships and the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences free of coercion, discrimination, and violence. Sexual health is as valuable as any other type of health. How important it is will be different for each person. Sometimes depending on where you are in the world and your upbringing, sexual health may not be as recognized as other types of health, and there may even be a shame, embarrassment, fear, and confusion with sexual health. This is very common as there, unfortunately, can be a lot of shame attached to things associated with sex.

Main Section

Individuals who engage in high-risk sexual behavior (HRSB) expose themselves to multiple risks, including social, emotional, and physical. Such risks can include interpersonal relationships, self-esteem, well-being, and health. With such important effects of engagement, a variety of healthcare providers must understand an individual's decision-making process as a way to prevent unnecessary and adverse health, social, and behavioral consequences.

Sexuality is a big part of being human. Love, affection, and sexual intimacy all play a role in healthy relationships. They also contribute to your sense of well-being. Whether you're part of a couple, in a new relationship, have many partners, or are happy and relaxed not having sex, everyone needs to take care of their sexual well-being.

Men and women have many sexual problems that frequently arise because of other problems within a relationship or because of individual differences. These differences consist of differences in expectations, assumptions, desires, preferred behaviors, and relationship conflicts. Although these differences create sexual problems in both men and women, problems among men and women are different.

The World Health Organization's International Classifications of Diseases defines sexual problems as - the various ways in which an individual is unable to participate in a sexual relationship as they would wish. According to the DSM-IV-TR, Sexual disorders are disturbances in sexual desire and psycho-physiological changes that characterize the sexual response cycle and cause marked distress and interpersonal difficulty. There are four major categories of sexual problems:

• Desire disorders
• Arousal disorders
• Orgasmic disorders
• Sexual pain disorders

Hypoactive sexual desire:

• Low sexual drive
• Occurs at the excitement phase

Sexual aversion:

• Anticipation of any sexual interaction causes great anxiety

Sexual arousal disorder:

• In men, erectile dysfunction
• In women, the difficulty of becoming aroused

Orgasmic disorders:

• In men, premature ejaculation and ejaculatory incompetence
• In women, the inability to have an orgasm

Hypersexuality (sexual addiction):

Sexual pain disorders:

In men, four different disorders:

• Dyspareunia (pain during intercourse due to a physical problem)
• Post-ejaculatory syndrome (pain in the genitals during or after orgasm)
• Priapism (prolonged erection)
• Coital cephalalgia (migraine headaches during and after orgasm)

In women, three different disorders:

• Dyspareunia (recurrent genital pain during intercourse)
• Vaginismus (vagina involuntarily closes)
• Noncoital sexual pain disorder (genital pain due to arousal)

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