Sexual Dysfunctions Among Women

Running Head: SEXUAL DYSFUNCTIONS AMONG WOMEN

Sexual Dysfunctions Among Women

Nathaniel Santos

Tanya Rovira-Osterwalder

COH319 Public Health & Sexuality

December 11, 2022

Introduction

Sexuality differs from men to women. The same applies to how both genders enjoy sex and the advances of sex. However, the problem of sexuality that each of this gender could be suffering from tends to vary. Women who have sexual dysfunction have a lot to learn to manage their sexual disorders. If they do not learn about these sexual disorders, it might end up damaging the sex life of a woman and even at some point of their intimate partners.

Types of sexual dysfunctions suffered by women

One of the most popular types of sexual dysfunction women suffer is anorgasmia (Bodnar, 2020). This is a type of sexual dysfunction where a woman is not able to have an orgasm. Orgasm is the status of a woman getting to the climax of enjoying sexual intercourse with their intimate partners. In other women, this is experienced through a significantly low level of orgasm. Others enjoy orgasm, but to them, it is delayed and takes a long before they can get their orgasm. Equally, all these scenarios are referred to as anorgasmia, and any woman can suffer from these under certain conditions.

Women who do not enjoy orgasms are very vulnerable. It might be hard for women to live with a partner who does not meet their orgasm during intimacy. Therefore, women who have anorgasmia are exposed to the vulnerability of trying to try new partners who would meet their sexual needs. Others might go through some form of mental breakdown and stress due to their sexual status. It is a disorder that women try to get treated more so those who are more active sexually. If the condition is not treated, a woman might end up hating their intimate partner and blaming their sexual performance during intimacy.

Hypoactive sexual desire disorder is the second type of sexual disorder among women (Parish, Simon, Davis, Giraldi, Goldstein, Goldstein & Vignozzi, 2021). This is a common type of sexual disorder, and it is attributed to different reasons. The reason attributed to hypoactive sexual desire disorder could be biological or even physical. Under this type of sexual dysfunction, a woman loses the desire for sex. They are not thrilled when they get intimate with their partners. At the time, women might turn down their partner's advances to get intimate. Others might have desires for sex, but their libido is low. The same sexual dysfunction is experienced among such women.

Sexual arousal disorder is the third type of sexual disorder among women (Stanton, Boyd, Fogarty & Meston, 2019). A woman with this sexual disorder will not get aroused subjective and physically when their intimate partner advances for sexual intercourse. This majorly happens with older women or those who have been in a relationship for a long. However, it is also experienced by women who are young enough and are expected to be sexually active. In some cases, major diseases could also result in women suffering from this sexual dysfunction.

Causes of sexual dysfunction among women

There are two major categories of causes of these dysfunctions. These are the physical cause and psychological causes. A woman could be affected by any cause from these categories, and others suffer from a combination of reasons.

Physical causes

Start with the physical causes are factors that relate to the physical body. Abnormal blood flow is one of the core causes of sexual dysfunction among women (Basson & Gilks, 2018). In this case, abnormal blood flow happens when not enough blood flows through a woman's reproductive parts for her to become aroused. Abnormal blood flow surfaces where there is a problem with blood vessels do not have some disorders.

A woman is highly likely to be less sexually active because of her hormonal imbalance. When the hormonal imbalance is prevalent in a woman's body, she might not be stimulated enough to develop desires for sex. Hormonal imbalance could be shot term or long-term. Some medical procedures could cause either long-term or short-term changes in hormones in the body or a woman. Others, like menopause, are likely to cause a woman to be less interested with sexual intercourse or become uncomfortable whenever having sex (Dąbrowska-Galas, Dąbrowska & Michalski, 2019).

Psychological causes

Stress is one of the core causes of sexual dysfunction for women. Stress, in this case, could be emerging from the workplace or within the homestead. Stress is of different types are experienced in different magnitudes. Stress has a biological aspect (Yazdanpanahi, Nikkholgh, Akbarzadeh & Pourahmad, 2018). Chemical reactions in the body trigger this biological aspect when a woman struggles with a workplace or home stress; her hormone cortisol increases. When the hormone cortisol increases, the sexual drive of women decreases. Even when they are getting intimate with their partners, they might not be so excited about the act to the extent of getting an orgasm.

Past sexual experiences are another psychological reason that can cause sexual dysfunction among women. When women have faced sexual abuse in the past, they might be living with the trauma. If a woman has never moved past such trauma, she will have a problem whenever she gets intimate. The memories of her sexual abuse will always haunt her and decrease her level of arousal and ability to get an orgasm. In some cases, such past bad experiences with sexual intercourse can cause relationship problems. A woman with a relationship problem will likely suffer from a reduced desire for intimacy.

Treating sexual dysfunctions for women

There are different techniques and strategies to treat sexual dysfunction in women. Each choice depends on the type of sexual disorder in question and what could be causing the sexual disorder. When treating a sexual disorder, it is better to approach it as an issue affecting a couple, not just one individual. By approaching it as an issue of a couple, it is possible to establish a long-lasting solution that will help the woman in question reclaim her sex life and intimacy pleasures.

Hormone therapy is one of the common approaches to treating sexual disorders. It applies where a woman has a hormonal imbalance that is tampering with her chemical reaction to sexual advances. The choice of strategy for hormonal imbalance depends on the underlying symptoms of the sexual disorder for a woman. This is why hormonal imbalance restoration could differ from one woman to another (Weinberger, Houman, Caron & Anger, 2019).

Counselling has also been used in several cases and has been seen to help. This majorly applies where the problem causing sexual disorders is more mental. Such problems can be managed by casual talk without medication to restore sexual desires at their desired levels. Counseling can be between a woman and her preferred counselor or can be between a couple with the selected counselor.

If necessary, arousal techniques can also be used to treat sexual dysfunctions. This happens when a woman talks with her partner to have a different approach to sexual arousal. Here, the woman in question could be trying to take a certain medication, or the intimate partner could be the one they take such medication. It comes down to a mutual agreement between the partners to improve their sex life. Where things are out of hand, medication can be applied. Here, the woman, or rather the couple in question, gets professional medication to restore sex and alleviate the sexual dysfunction in question.

REFERENCES:

Basson, R., & Gilks, T. (2018). Women’s sexual dysfunction associated with psychiatric disorders and their treatment.  Women's health, p. 14, 1745506518762664.

Bodnar, M. (2020). The influence of psychological factors on the ability to experience orgasm in women of reproductive age. In MedEspera (Vol. 8, pp. 132–133).

Dąbrowska-Galas, M., Dąbrowska, J., & Michalski, B. (2019). Sexual dysfunction in menopausal women.  Sexual Medicine,  7(4), 472-479.

Parish, S. J., Simon, J. A., Davis, S. R., Giraldi, A., Goldstein, I., Goldstein, S. W., ... & Vignozzi, L. (2021). International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health Clinical Practice Guideline for using systemic testosterone for hypoactive sexual desire disorder in women. Journal of Women's Health,  30(4), 474–491.

Stanton, A. M., Boyd, R. L., Fogarty, J. J., & Meston, C. M. (2019). Heart rate variability biofeedback increases sexual arousal among women with female sexual arousal disorder: Results from a randomized controlled trial. Behaviour Research and Therapy,  pp. 115, 90–102.

Weinberger, J. M., Houman, J., Caron, A. T., & Anger, J. (2019). Female sexual dysfunction: a systematic review of outcomes across various treatment modalities.  Sexual medicine reviews,  7(2), 223-250.

Yazdanpanahi, Z., Nikkholgh, M., Akbarzadeh, M., & Pourahmad, S. (2018). Stress, anxiety, depression, and sexual dysfunction among postmenopausal women in Shiraz, Iran, 2015.  Journal of family & community medicine,  25(2), 82.