ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that sexual disorders overlap significantly and that there is more to be gained from understanding the root cause or causes of the problem than the way it exhibits itself. Desire for sexual activity with another or alone is interplay between the mind and the body. The definition states that sexual dysfunction is ‘the persistent or recurrent deficiency or absence of sexual thoughts/fantasies and/or desire for or receptivity to sexual activity which causes distress or interpersonal difficulty’. There are many medications that can have an impact on sexuality and many do this by a direct effect on desire. In women both oestrogen and testosterone deficiency can cause sexual problems. There is ‘female sexual interest/arousal disorder’ and ‘male hypoactive sexual desire disorder’ listed, along with other disorders such as ‘female orgasmic disorder’. Decreased active testosterone will directly decrease sexual desire.
