Why Psychosexual Disorders Equally Important in India

Abstract

Human sexuality is a complex with multidimensional aspects such as biological, psychological, social, and cultural. Cultural factors influence their development as prevalence rates of these disorders vary in different communities. The nature of problems and their psychological consequences make it difficult to assess the exact prevalence of these dysfunctions, even more difficult in developing countries like India. In India, care for people is not proper as large number of patients suffering from psychosexual problems visit unauthorized “sex clinics” rather than an authorized hospital setting. Specialists like dermatologists are often consulted for these problems in their routine practice as common belief shared by them is that these problems are caused by dysfunctions in their sex organs. So they are hesitant to go to sexual clinics and psychiatrists for the same in the first place. The question that arises is where does sexual medicine stand, as asked by many in the past too but remains unanswered in terms of general medicine and psychiatry. Thus, the need of the hour is to identify these cases in early stages, which can prevent a lot of other disorders occurring due to them such as homicide, suicide, domestic violence, battered wife syndrome, etc. in society. The advance in psychosexual medicine is much needed. Despite the importance of these disorders and sensitivity, in India, there is scarcity of data about the burden of sexual health disorders from community-based studies, unlike Western countries.