Male Sexual Dysfunction

Original Editor - Stacy Schiurring based on the course by Pierre Roscher
Top Contributors - Stacy Schiurring, Kim Jackson, Lucinda hampton and Jess Bell

This page aims to provide an introductory discussion of men's health physiotherapy with regards to male sexual dysfunction. Please note that further training is required through a reputable pelvic health education company before attempting the techniques discussed in this page. See the Resources section at the bottom of this page for links to pelvic and men's health special interest groups.

Introduction

Three parts of sexual activity

When treating sexual dysfunction, a medical professional must look at the broader prospective of the patient's sexual activity in order to accurately diagnose and treat the underlying causes of the dysfunction. Sexual activity includes a patient's physiological sexual functioning, their sexual identity, and their sexual relationship.

It is imperative to have open and respectful conversations with the patient regarding these very personal issues order to provide quality and appropriate care. A medical professional working in this specialized field must be inclusive and make all patients feel comfortable and respected. This extends from the words a therapist uses to describe a patient's sexual orientation, gender identity, and or expression, to how the clinic is setup to provide maximal privacy during patient evaluations, treatments, and consultations. Please read this article for recommendations on how to setup a men's health clinic.

Sexuality

Sexuality is a central aspect of being human throughout life and encompasses sex, gender identities and roles, sexual orientation, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy and reproduction. Sexuality is experienced and expressed in thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviours, practices, roles and relationships. While sexuality can include all of these dimensions, not all of them are always experienced or expressed. Sexuality is influenced by the interaction of biological, psychological, social, economic, political, cultural, ethical, legal, historical, religious and spiritual factors.

Just as an understanding of pelvic anatomy is needed for proper pelvic floor physiotherapy, an understanding of appropriate terminology to use for gender identity and sexual orientation is needed when providing pelvic health physiotherapy. It is also important to use know the appropriate pronouns to use, especially when working with gender nonbinary and transgender patients. Please read this article for more in-depth information on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.

The term sex is used to refer to a person’s biological maleness or femaleness, and the term gender to the nonphysiological aspects of being male or female– the cultural expectations and roles for femininity and masculinity. This article will focus on male sexual dysfunction and how it can be addressed by men's health physiotherapy. The term “men” will refer to biological males and “women” for biological females for the remainder of this page.

Male Sexual Dysfunction

When discussing sexual dysfunction, a physiotherapy patient interview may uncover a change or alteration in one of the four basic sexual functions.

Basic male sexual functions:

1. Desire
2. Erection
3. Orgasm
4. Ejaculation

The treatment of male sexual dysfunction often requires a multidisciplinary approach, involving multiple treatment techniques and interventions from various healthcare and mental health providers.

Resources

• https://www.prideinpractice.org/articles/transgender-pronouns-guide/
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