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Sexual Health Infertility
Infertility may interact with a couple’s or individual’s sexuality and sexual expression in two main ways. Sexual problems may be caused or exacerbated by the diagnosis, investigation, and management of infertility (or subfertility), or they may be a contributory factor in childlessness. Any examination of a couple’s difficulty in conceiving must include overt and clear questioning about their sexual activity.
Useful questions to elicit information*
- How have your fertility problems affected your relationship, including your sexual relationship?
- Has anything changed in your sexual relationship since you have been trying to conceive?
- How would you describe your sexual activity?
- How often do you have penetrative (that is, penis in vagina) sex?
Sexual problems commonly associated with infertility
Male problems
- Loss of desire, with a consequent decrease in sexual activity
- Erectile problems
- Premature ejaculation—little or no control over ejaculatory response, and ejaculation may occur before vaginal entry achieved
- Retarded ejaculation—difficulty ejaculating intravaginally, or at all
Female problems
- Loss of desire
- Vaginismus
- Dyspareunia
- Anorgasmia