Sexual health - a real challenge for doctors

Abstract

Erectile dysfunction (ED) and other sexual disorders are becoming more and more important for both specialists and general practitioners. The aim of this study was to assess the attitude of different specialists to asking questions about erectile dysfunction. The randomly selected primary care physicians, diabetologists, psychiatrists formed the study group. The control group consisted of urologists and sexologists. All doctors were to ask 20 consecutive men aged > 40 year old questions about ED, regardless the aim of their visit.
Finally 1013 doctors out of 1353 who were asked to participate in this study withdrew at the very beginning or later. Filled in forms were returned by 340 doctors (25.12%). The percentages of withdrawal were as follows: primary care physicians - 86.5%, diabetologists - 67.1%, psychiatrists - 48.7%, sexologists - 10.5% and urologists - 15.8%.
Final conclusions: 1. Almost three out of four general practitioners, diabetologists and psychiatrist working in outpatient clinics refused to participate in the study about ED, thus they showed they are unwilling to ask their patients about sexual health problems. 2. Primary care physicians were the most unwilling to ask about sexual health (86.5%), diabetologists - 67.1%, psychiatrists - 48.7%. 3. It is essential to include sexual health problems in education initiatives and to create clear guidelines for the management of patients with sexual disorders in the form of algorithms. Such undertaking can change the attitude of physicians to sexual health problems. 4. It is also reasonable to include problems of sexual health in the curriculums of medical academies.