1. Sexual Challenges

2.  Our levels of desire in terms of both wanting
sex and getting aroused can shift over the
years or from week to week of partner to
partner.
 “How sexual I feel at any given time depends
a surprising amount on how much sleep I’m
getting, how my partner and I are getting
along, whether I’m feeling depressed, what
level of antidepressant I’m taking, and a
bunch of other even less tangible factors.”

3.  A number of pharmaceutical companies have worked over the
past two decades to discover medications that enhance
woman’s sexual desire
 A particularly problematic aspect of this effort is a new
practice of defining women as female sexual dysfunction
(FSD), a medical disorder deserving treatment
 Your level of desire is a problem only if it causes you distress
 Anxiety and sleep deprivation can also cause low sexual
desire
 A cultural shift in how we think about desire may be overdue

4.  Doctors may prescribe testosterone treatment to
help problems with arousal, but the treatments are
not approved by FDA and the science supporting
the use of testosterone in women is limited
 In studies the only factor consistently linked to
sexual desire and satisfaction is exercise.

5.  Vaginal penetration typically doesn’t hurt, but there are times
even with plenty of arousal and added lubrication you may
experience discomfort and pain
 Conditions can contribute to or cause pain during intercourse or
other forms of penetration:
 Insufficient lubrication
 Local infection
 Local Irritation
 Tightness in the vaginal entrance.
 Pain deep in the pelvis
 “ I have to be enormously aroused to be able to accommodate a
man’s penis. It takes multiple orgasms usually, so my partner has to
be very patient.”

6.  Localizedvulvodynia is marked by a painful
burning or sharp sensation in and around the
opening to the vagina when there is any kind
of penetration

7. Medications
 Certain medications can affect sexual desire and
the likelihood and intensity of orgasms

8.  Estrogen, Progesterone, and testosterone are
hormones that affect a woman’s sexual desire and
functioning
 Many factors affect hormone levels at any given
time
 Menstrual cycle
 The Pill and other hormonal birth control methods
 Pregnancy
 Nursing
 Perimenopause/menopause
 Adrenal or ovary removal (oophorectomy)

9.  Some people, including health care
providers, assume that teenage girls and women
with disabilities are sexless, but in reality they are
just as capable of having sex.
 “While the disability does, in reality, affect how we
do things and what we are able to do together, it
does not define our relationship.”

10.  Lack of sexual desire not always being a
disorder, it is sometimes just due to anxiety
or sleep deprivation. We have grown as a
society to believe that if you are not having a
healthy amount of sexual intercourse your
relationship is dysfunctional and something
must be wrong, but who defines what a
healthy amount of sexual intercourse is.
Sometimes we are really just too tired or to
stressed out to even get aroused.

11.  “The first time I had sex with my boyfriend after I
became paralyzed, it was awful. But then, over
time, it got better with communication and
experience. I was surprised that I could still orgasm
after my injury, since no one at the hospital
discussed it with me.”
 I was told that paralyzed individuals could have
sex, but I never thought it was actually possible
due to the lack of feeling especially in their lower
halves. This quote stood out to me because it
proved me wrong and corrected my awful bias.

12.  When we are not affected, why do you think we
ignore such topics as Female sexual dysfunction
(FSD) or Disabled sex?