Just like physical health, mental health, spiritual health is thought of as a much needed human function/area of well-being need, so is sexual health.It is so good to see this World Health Organisation post talking about sexual health.
If you have a sexual health concern and you reach out for support in the UK via NHS, you have a real lottery/bingo game on your hands.
• has time to listen?
• who doesn’t just prescribe antidepressants?
• doesn’t blame x,y,z without listening out for the bigger picture?
• Are you male or female, or heaven forbid, identify as neither?
• Are menopausal, or perimenopausal?
• Are you overweight?
• Are you unmarried?
None of these should make any difference to the support that you get, though many people report that it certainly does.
Don’t get me started on the shame/taboo of sexual health and for a woman to actually wish for pleasure.
So if a man with ‘erectile dysfunction’ goes to a GP, he is likely to be given something like viagra to increase the blood supply to his penis.
Or a woman with vaginismus is likely to be given ‘dilators’ (hard plastic bullet shaped dildos, essentially) to desensitise her to penetration.
The latter rarely works, btw.
Where is the mental and emotional health support? Are we missing the fact that our minds play a huge part in all of this?
With a bit of luck, encouraging further education for our health care practitioners, and some funding to allow Drs to spend more than 10 minutes per patient, then we might make some progress.
If you have checked out all physical aspects and are having no success in making a change, or feel unheard, unsupported, please get in touch. Don’t give up, as you are so worth it. We all deserve good sexual health, as much as we all deserve good mental, emotional and physical health.