Room 517-D | Male Sexual Dysfunction: An Integrative Approach Tuesday, July 12, 2005 Time: 11:00 AM-12:30 PM |
Psycho-social Aprroaches to Male Sexual Dysfunction.
Giami, Alain*,1, 1 Inserm, France
ABSTRACT- The paper will consider a range of psycho social approaches that will include: – A critique of the construction of the medical and epidemiological categories that are used to evaluate the prevalence of Erectile Dysfunction. An analysis o current research papers suggests an increase of the prevalence related to changes in medical definitions. – Identification and measurement of the impact of social factors (age, income, social class) influencing the prevalence of ED. For example, social factors such as unemployment has been found to impact the prevalence of ED. – Gender stereotypes influence the medical construction of sexual disorders. Whereas female sexual dysfunction is considered to be related to social context, relationships with partners and other psychological and emotional dimensions, male sexual dysfunction is usually related to organically (biological or physiological) causes. This raises the question of why psychological explanations are missing from accounts of the cause of this sexual disorder in men and not recognised as part of the etiology of ED. – The paper argues that it would be beneficial to incorporate psycho-social approaches into medical research and medical practice. This would make more visible the psychological consequences and subjective meanings relating to the personal experience of ED, and would necessitate the development of qualitative research methods to present the views of men, ′in their own words′.
Key words: Psycho-social approach