How your genitals expose your health and sex life explains the link between sex and medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and heart health. In reality, your genitals are the window into your cardiovascular system, the peripheral nervous system, and your hormonal system. And affects your sex span.
You must have many different systems work to have the best sexual function. For instance, first, your hormones must be in the right place. Second, your blood vessels must dilate when you want them to. Third, your nerves must connect to your genitalia to make them responsive to stimulation.
Connecting Sex To Medical Conditions
Primary care doctors must educate patients on important medical conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure. So how can a doctor use sex to educate patients about diabetes and blood pressure? For men with severe intense erectile dysfunction at a young age and with unrestrained diabetes, the fear tactic is needed sometimes to drive the link between sex and diabetes, according to a urologist.
Diabetes
The reality is that diabetes can impair the peripheral nerves, resulting in peripheral neuropathy. So the same way diabetes can affect your fingers and toes, diabetes can affect the penis, even before those other areas. Other conditions diabetes can affect include low testosterone which in turn affects the functioning of the penis.
Therefore, controlling your diabetes is essential to having a pleasing sex span, which is the duration of your life when you can have great sex and go about it the way you desire.
Cholesterol or hypertension
Chronic conditions such as high cholesterol or hypertension (high blood pressure) can affect your capability to become erect or aroused. This is irrespective of whether you have a penis or a vulva, and even your capability to have an orgasm.
These are important issues for doctors to talk with their patients about. Doctors should initiate questions such as “Do you have any sexual problems?” (which nobody ever admits). Then move to “Do you have any issues with libido? Do you want to talk about it? Any issues with erection, arousal, orgasm, or sexual pain?”.
Treatment
Doctors reviewed that it is when patients are encouraged to talk about those issues that treatment for the patient is from a whole physiologic perspective. For example, how does their sciatica (pain that runs down one or both legs from the lower back) affect their sexual pain? How does their antidepressant cause a delayed orgasm? How does their low testosterone level affect their energy level, their libido, and their desire?
There is so much shame and guilt in sexual health, to the extent that patients feel broken. Doctors can help them understand their anatomy and physiology and explain that they aren’t broken. Instead, it’s to explain that the patient needs specific medicine for his or her crippling anxiety, and that’s why orgasm is delayed. In such a scenario the doctor can augment it or add or subtract something to help deal with the orgasmic problem.
Medicine And Side Effects
In a primary care setting, patients’ overall health is crucial so medication compliance is endeavoured. However, a substantial part of medication has sexual side effects from antidepressants, beta-blockers, or birth control. Also, breast cancer treatments such as anastrozole or Tamoxifen have sexual side effects, making many patients go off them.
Routine Check For Sex Vital Signs
Sexual genitals as a vital sign for sex health need to be checked routinely by a doctor. Your doctor should be comfortable with treating you like a whole person, giving you better results, and become comfortable with it because then the doctors are unlocking the ability to treat every patient like a whole person, give them better outcomes, improve their compliance, and educate them on how your genitals expose your health and sex life.
Toolbox for sexual health
There are increasing toolboxes for all genders when it comes to sexual health as listed below:
Medications: FDA-approved medications for low libido in women.
Testosterone: Testosterone in men in an evidence-based way to safely improve libido.
Medications: Medications are available to help with the genitourinary syndrome of menopause. Orgasm is challenging, but some devices can help with those reflexes. And working with people who specialize in sexual pain can be extremely helpful for patients.
How Do Doctors Navigate Sexual Complaints?
It’s a challenge for doctors to navigate, but the advice is to normalize the conversation and confirm what is happening. Besides have a few basic tools and then have referrals. It’s not about treating every condition or spending all the time in the world. However, a conversation needs to begin, be comfortable with it, and then get patients connected to the right resources.
In addition, it’s essential to connect with patients and understand what they care about. What are their goals? What do they want for their families, relationships, and quality of life? And how do you and the patient work together as a team to help them with those things?
Sex As A True Vital Sign
How your genitals expose your health and sex life shows that sex is a huge part of people’s lives. Hence doctors must ask about it, look into it, and admit that physiology, medications, and surgeries can affect your sexual health and functioning. Much can be done when doctors work as a team and sex is considered as a true vital sign of genitals health.
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