Male Sexuality

Abstract

Sexuality includes both physical and emotional components, has influences from societal norms and values, and plays a role in quality of life. Disorders of male sexual function have been attributed to many etiologic categories. In the mid- to late 1900s, male sexual dysfunction was thought to be primarily of psychogenic origin. Subsequently, perhaps in part due to a focus on medical and surgical interventions for sexual dysfunction, physiologic causes of sexual dysfunction progressively came into consideration. Now sexual health is realized to be multidimensional and an important contributor to overall health and quality of life. One of the most common forms of male sexual dysfunction, erectile dysfunction, has prevalence ranges from 10 to 55 % in various study populations [1, 2]. The National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS) subclassifies sexual dysfunction into problems associated with (1) desire for sex, (2) arousal difficulties, (3) inability to achieve climax or ejaculation, (4) anxiety about sexual performance, (5) climaxing or ejaculating too rapidly, (6) physical pain during intercourse, and (7) not finding sex pleasurable [1]. From this comprehensive definition, it is clear that sexual dysfunction includes physiologic, psychological, and social factors. Publications on sexual dysfunction in survivors of pediatric and adolescent cancer are limited and most focus on the psychosocial dimensions of sexual dysfunction in this population. In a recent publication, one-third of male and half of female survivors of childhood cancer reported problems with sexual function [3]. Of interest in this study, males were more likely to report sexual symptoms as distressing. In another study of childhood cancer survivors compared to the general population, male survivors but not female survivors reported problems with interest and satisfaction with sex [4]. It is important that male survivors of childhood cancer be educated about, and screened for, potential sexual dysfunction and provided options for treatment, so as to mitigate its impact on quality of life.