Recently a news release came across my desk titled "New research addresses taboos around the impa... Disease taboos can stifle
Recently a news release came across my desk titled "New research addresses taboos around the impact of rheumatoid arthritis on patients' sex lives."
"I have had arthritis for over 30 years and in all that time there has been no health professional who has ever asked me if I have problems with my sex life," Connie Ziegler, project manager of the Danish Rheumatism Association, told a press conference during the June meeting of the European League Against Rheumatism.
Things have changed for the better over the intervening 20 years. More research is being conducted with people who have injured spinal cords, or suffer from multiple sclerosis, ataxia (a neurological disease that causes muscular discoordination), arthritis, brain injuries, chronic pain and other conditions. Yet much of the new information is not finding its way to patients.
"This is definitely a need that has gone unmet," says Alexander, who was once part of actor Christopher Reeve's medical team and who has probably done more research into the sexual responses of women with spinal cord injury than any other doctor or scientist.
This isn't just the case for arthritis patients or those with damaged spinal cords. According to research from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center on 133 women with multiple sclerosis, 61 percent had problems with bladder control that could interfere with sex and 47 percent said neurological problems inhibited their sex lives.
There is often a great desire among people with disabilities for a return of sexual function, but not all the blame for the slow progress in helping them can be laid at the feet of doctors and scientists.
Many people with disabilities are embarrassed to take part in studies like Alexander's. "Look, I am essentially asking people to come into the lab and masturbate for me," she says. "Some will. But some listen and then say, 'No, thanks.'"
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