Sexual Dysfunction In US Essay, Research Paper

The article being reviewed Is from the February 22, 1999 issue of U.S. News and

World Report. It is titled Not tonight, dear and is written by Wray Herbert. The

article is separated into three parts dealing with sex and marriage, different

statistics between the races, and the treatment of sexual dysfunction. There are

a number of interesting facts in the intro that should be stated before a review

of the articles body commences. The author cites a recent report consisting of

interviews from 3,000 adults about their sexual lives. One of the findings from

the report is that at nearly any given time almost one third of American men and

4 out of 10 American qomen suffer from some sort of sexual dysfunction. The

range of dysfunction being suffered by American adults is a wide one, including

a lack of desire, anxiety about performance, pain during intercourse, and

orgasmic and arousal dysfunctions. The author then states that the contradictory

messages about sexuality in our culture can only be part of the problem and that

emotional and mental illness`s produced by past traumas and set backs are most

likely the major cause of sexual dysfunction. First, there appears to be less

reported cases of sexual dysfunction amongst married men and women than there

are for singles. This sentiment is backed by a survey done by University of

Chicago sociologist Edward Laumann and he concludes that the singles scene is

not as carefree as it is cracked up to be and that sex within the confines of

marriage is less problematic. This conclusion runs counter to the clinical

experience of many sex therapists. Their experiences tend to make them think

that many people in relationships are deeply committed to each other, however

the are not in fact satisfied by their sexual relationships because the lack the

desire to have sex. The issue of the inverse nature of male and female sexuality

is also discussed, It seems that when they are younger men have a stronger

desire for sexual contact and women have a higher incidence of sexual

dysfunctions. These statistics reverse themselves in older people, when the

incedences of dysfunction are higher for males and the desire for sexual contact

is stronger in females. Secondly, in this article the levels of dysfunction and

satisfaction is applied to different ethnicities. The three different races that

were polled in this article were blacks, whites and Hispanics. In terms of

sexual dysfunction, blacks reported higher occurrences of it, followed by whites

and hispanics reported the lowest instances of dysfunction. Black women were

most likely to report having low sexual desire low amounts of pleasure from sex,

once again followed by white women. Hispanic women apparently have the most

satisfying sex, because they consistently came in at the bottom of the survey

for sexual dysfunction. In trying to explain or find a cause for sexual

dysfunction most psychologist will point the finger in the direction of

depression. It is thought that not just clinical depression but even less severe

forms of it like dysthymia can negatively affect sexual functioning.

Furthermore, many psychiatrist think that the root of most sexual dysfunctions

lays in some other psychological dysfunction. Lastly, the article addresses the

different ways to treat sexual dysfunction. The issue of prescribing Viagra to

men wit erictile dysfunction is critiqued on the basis that some other

psychological disorder might be the cause of sexual dysfunction. If this is true

then many professionals think that giving the drug to men doesn`t really get to

the root of the problem. They would rather have the primary disorder, like

depression, treated instead of treating symptoms if the secondary disorder, like

erectile dysfunction treated. Another aspect of our culture that might be adding

to our dysfunctions are an adherence to antiquated stereotypical sex roles and

the visual bombardments of an oversexed media.