Psychosexual Counselling

Psychosexual dysfunctions in African countries

June 28, 2016 by Albert

Although Africa represents 12% of the worldís population, over 60% of the AIDS-infected population resides on the continent. The African continent is represented by an eclectic group of cultures, customs, politics, economics, and societies. Yet, common stresses between African countries, such as famine, lack of educational infrastructure, wars, and lack of accessibility to health care and opportunities to create wealth have all handicapped Africa’s overall progress in tackling the AIDS/HIV crisis. Even beyond the incompetence of government infrastructure, a large part of the virusí rapid spread has to do with sexual cultural norms in many African traditions. The norm of multiple sexual partners, particularly in males, is common. Promiscuity demonstrates the absolute disregard of factoring potential risks into sexuality in Africa. During his 2005 trial after being accused of rape, current South Africa President Jacob Zuma admitted to having unprotected sex with a woman that he knew was HIV-positive. Among his defense rested on the fact that he took a shower afterwards to cut the risk of contracting HIV. Attitudes towards sexuality and its consequences across Africa in some ways are similar, yet in other ways very different. In that way, psychosexual dysfunctions show themselves in many forms that depend on cultural norms and circumstance in Africa.

One common trait among African cultural beliefs and practices is the patriarchal gender system that elevates males to positions of power and women to subordinate positions. One consistency among African women is that a large number in the continent lack control over own sexuality. Part of this has to do with tradition rooted in the husbands being the bread earners and fighters, and women the nurturers. In a continent ravaged by poverty as a whole, this patriarchal society has translated into better opportunities, if there are any to be afforded, to males over females. Economic dependence has undermined women’s right to safe sexuality. Consistent in the poorer regions of the continent, women’s health needs are widely neglected. Poor nutrition and overall physical and mental health have made sterility the most common form (more…)

The Psychosexual Effects of Hysterectomy

June 28, 2016 by Albert

Hysterectomy is as Isaac Newton once famously prescribed that ìEvery action has an equal and opposite reaction.î Similarly, when surgery tinkers with the human body with the goal of physical improvement, rarely is the physiological change viewed in terms of how it will alter the psychological or psychosexual. The impact hysterectomy surgery has on psychosexuality and the mental health of women is rarely discussed when the procedure is undertaken. Hysterectomy involves the surgical removal of the uterus which is the setting of fetal development during pregnancy. The most common form of hysterectomy is known as total hysterectomy which involves removal of the cervix, uterus, and the fallopian tubes. Today, hysterectomy remains commonly performed in many countries, with rates varying from 37% of US women over 60 to 3.8% of women in the Netherlands. According to the US Department of Health & Human Services, each year in America alone over 600,000 hysterectomies are performed. But, current trends reveal a contradictory message: While increasingly hysterectomies are being undergone for the purpose of quality of life rather than life-saving measures, there is an increasing public curiosity and anxiety concerning its psychosexual ramifications.

It is important to stress that hysterectomy can be necessitated by illnesses. Cancers in the uterus, cervix, or ovary may leave no other alternatives. Severe uterine bleeding from childbirth or infection may require it too. Sometimes, there are physiological issues that may not make hysterectomy necessary but still desirable, such as the presence of benign fibroid tumors. The issue, however, does concern its increasing popularity in illnesses that offer alternative remedies. “If less invasive alternatives have a reasonable chance of solving a problem, then in most cases that would be preferable,” writes Dr. Indman, a renowned California-based gynecologist and author in an editorial Hysterectomy will ruin my sex life. “That is why I am so aggressive about promoting hysteroscopy, hysteroscopic procedures, and (more…)

Joyful Pain: The Psychosexual Effects of Giving Birth

June 28, 2016 by Albert

Pregnancy is a period of mixed emotions for women. On one hand, it is the most wonderful experience in terms of the significance of a person being literally created from your care. However, many of the joyful elements of pregnancy may be overshadowed by its psychological and psychosexual toll. Fluctuating hormonal levels that accompany pregnancy and the post partum period wreak havoc on women’s mental health with its common symptoms of anxiety, depression, sadness, and irritability. Because pregnancy affects virtually all hormones in the body, what is undeniable is the profound psychological and psychosexual effects that giving birth, both prenatal and postnatal, has on female personality.

To understand the role hormones play on the psychological and sexual makeup of prenatal and postnatal women, scientists first analyze ovarian hormones – in particular, estrogens, androgens, and progesterone – and how an alteration in their bodily production influences psychosexual behavior. During early pregnancy, levels of estrogen and progesterone rise because the placenta – the organ that connects the developing fetus to the uterine wall – produces a hormone known as chorionic gonadotropin that stimulates the ovaries to continue to produce these essential hormones. Among the physiological effects of this occurrence include the cessation of the menstrual cycle as well as changes in how the body handles glucose levels. Following the second trimester of pregnancy, hormonal fluctuations cause a sharp rise in glucose levels in the blood because most of it is being conserved for use by the fetus. As a result, the pancreas is forced to produce more insulin. This fluctuation of blood sugar levels can lead to fatigue, irritability, or even a form of diabetes known as gestational diabetes.

With all these hormonal changes, researches from across the world documenting many cultures have published studies documenting an overall reduction in womenís sexual activities during pregnancy. In a study conducted by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, surveys recorded that ìover 60% of the women had a reduction in sexual desire and enjoyment during pregnancy, and over 80% of the women worried about the adverse effects of sexual activity on the fetus.î While inadequate knowledge and hormonal activities influence the decision to refrain from sexual activity during pregnancy, the collapse of libido is also a sign of psychosexual disorder.

At the most basic level, psychosexual disorders are disturbances in sexual function due to psychological problems. This psychological anxiety and conflict over sex during pregnancy is influenced by both hormones, such as symptoms like fatigue or depression, or psychological disorders, such as the excessive anxiety towards hurting the child in some form if they engage in sex. Combine all these elements from pregnancy and the woman is left mentally exhausted. If the mental has (more…)

Pain and Pleasure: Masochism as a psychosexual disorder

June 28, 2016 by Albert

Anytime one thinks they can apply a universal truth to humanity, it is bound to be contradicted. For example, pain and suffering is believed to be negative because they are not pleasurable. Enter the psychosexual disorder known as masochism. Sexual masochism has long captured the imaginations of psychologists and the curious. Sexual masochism is the active seeking for pain and suffering for purposes of sexual gratification. Coming in many forms, Masochism is so common that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) Edition IV – the manual published by the American Psychiatric Association covering all mental health disorders– categorizes it as being a psychosexual disorder. According to the DSM, there are three important symptoms to be diagnosed as suffering from the psychosexual disorder: First, the need for sexual punishment has to have been recurring for at least six months. Second, the motive for this behavior is in achieving sexual arousal. Third, these sexual urges and behaviors begin to figure so prominently into the psyche of those who suffer from it that it impairs basic social functions. Sexual masochism may contradict every rational conclusion we’ve drawn on pain and pleasure, of love and hate: but, then, why is this submissive and pain-seeking source of pleasure so eternal and common?

Though it appears it many forms, masochism commonly include the use of accessories, such as handcuffs, cages, chains, and ropes. Other acts and masochistic perversions include spanking, whipping, burning, and more extreme forms include beatings and electrical shocks. Sexual masochism is, by the standards of the DSM, a disorder of the mentally ill. But, understanding sexual masochism from that perspective allows a large part of the equation to be disregarded simply because masochism contradicts our basic understandings of sexuality. After all, is love not inextricably intertwined with pleasure rather than pain?

Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing was an Austro-German sexologist who was among the first to explore case studies of sexual perversions in his 1886 text, Psychopathia Sexualis. Before Sigmund Freud released his theories on sexual perversions and psychosexual disorders, this text behaved as the definitive authority on sexual subjects that were highly taboo when published, such as homosexuality, female orgasm, and masochism. “By masochism,” he wrote, “I understand a peculiar perversion of the physical sexual life in which the individual is affected, in sexual feeling and thought, is controlled by the idea of being completely and unconditionally subject to the will of a person of the opposite sex.” Krafft-Ebing gave this absolute submissiveness the name of ‘masochism’ after famed writer, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch whose imagery of females dressed in fur holding whips in his book Venus in Fur became (more…)