A survey of Relate psychosexual therapy clients, January to March 2002

Abstract

A survey of Relate psychosexual therapy clients was conducted between January and March 2002. Relates sex therapists filled in a questionnaire about their current clients. The response rate was 66% and covered 592 client hours. Analysis of the clients presenting problems showed that the sexual problem was considered to be the womans in half the cases, the mans in just over a quarter and joint in just under a quarter of cases. The most common female sexual problem was lack of desire followed by vaginismus. For men the most common problem was erectile dysfunction, present in nearly a third of cases. For men almost half of the remaining cases were split evenly between loss of desire for sex and the presence of more than one sexual problem. When both partners were admitting they had a sexual problem the most common combination was a shared loss of sexual desire. Overall a third of cases involved more than one sexual dysfunction. In nearly 50% of cases there were medical problems present which were contributing to the sexual problem. Since the last published survey of Relate psychosexual therapy clients the age profile of male clients (but not female clients) has changed significantly.