Sexual Healing by Dr. Margarita Kressin

I came from a meeting this past weekend in Chicago of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America (SMSNA). It was a very good meeting, and I learned a lot of new things that I can incorporate in my practice.

What was interesting, and one of the speakers did make an observation of it, was that Female Sexual Medicine was not well-represented. Case in point, the meeting started on Thursday at 1:00 pm and went until Sunday at 12:30 pm. Essentially four days of sessions — mostly on male sexual medicine. The lecture on female sexual dysfunction (FSD) went from 9:00 to 9:30 one day as a debate. The debate was whether FSD was relevant to the ED (erectile dysfunction) specialist? There is nothing wrong with this question. The problem is that even the FSD session is linked to a male question. Even the topic of Circumcision for the Prevention of HIV was given a whole hour.

There were also six poster sessions, and one was at least delegated to FSD. Don’t get me wrong, I love treating my guys as much as my women. And they do have issues themselves (some of which will be covered in the next few blogs. Don’t worry I haven’t forgotten about Harriet and George.) that should not be ignored. But it just shows that women, female sexual health specifically, has a loooong way to go.

One may say, "But you have ISSWSH, the International Society for the Study of Sexual Health." And thank goodness for that. My point was that this is the SMSNA, not the Male SMSNA. Or maybe the meeting should be changed to that name.

Again, I was glad I went and learned a lot. I just couldn’t help noticing the disparity in the representation of female sexual health. And, unfortunately, I don’t foresee it changing anytime soon.