Women fall prey to sexual performance anxiety by Sophie Goodchild
NZ Herald Dec 7 2005 (Independent)
Sex therapists and doctors are reporting the first cases of young women seeking help
for “performance anxiety” -
Clinics say that the increasing expectation that women should be as experienced as men, coupled with society’s obsession with body image, are to blame for the female patients reporting they are unable to make love because they feel the pressure to deliver “fantastic sex”.
Record numbers of women, including those in their 20s and 30s are seeking help for sexual desire. The Sexual Dysfunction Association has received 2500 calls from women over the past year, a 25 per cent increase in 2004 and massive rise from the handful it received five years ago.
A spokeswoman for the charity, Ann Taylor, said doctors are often dismissive of women who come to them with this problem and that more training must be given.
“Women feel they will be judged if they are not interested in sex because there is almost a competitive element among young women now,” she said.
Dr John Ryan, who has a Harley Street practice, specialises in menopause treatment but says that he is now treating young women.
“If you are not having sex you are considered to be an outsider,” he said.
“This has been fueled by the whole ladette culture. There is a lot of pressure on young women as well as men.”
There are new treatments being tested which include testosterone patches for women with low levels of hormone and nasal spray that directly targets the brain’s arousal centre.
Catherine Kalamis, who has carried out research into women with low sex drives, said that drugs are not the solution.
“Women levels of desire are far more complex than that.