Aging and Sexual Health Reflection

     Culturally within most areas of the U.S., speaking of sexual health or sexual activity is considered taboo especially in the Bible Belt.  As a society, discussions about sexuality are pushed to remain private and are not encouraged.  However, sexual health is extremely important to understand and discuss with appropriate clients.  Within the 3rd edition of the OTPF, sexual activity is listed as an activity of daily living.  This inclusion within our practice framework means that assisting our clients with understanding and carrying out proper activities related to sexual health is within our scope of practice.  Dr. Valli provided tremendous insight and knowledge about sexual health and how to address it with our future clients.

     There were many key takeaways from Dr. Valli's lecture about aging and sexual health.  We have been exposed to some discussion of sexuality and sexual health during our didactic coursework, but much of this information was new.  One big takeaway was the progression through a sexual experience for women compared to men.  Typically for most men, the progression begins with desire then leads to arousal and then on to the orgasm.  However, women's progression can actually be much less linear.  Basson created a non-linear model of female sexual response displaying the many different ways that women can respond.  More simply, women can also often reverse the order that men typically follow by exhibiting a response to an arousal, then to a desire, and then the orgasm.  This was interesting to hear because Dr. Valli stated that historically many women have been told they were dysfunctional simply because they didn't follow this linear pattern that most men do.  

   Another big takeaway was the statement that the mind is the most important sex organ.  During OT school, we have learned how important the relationship between the mind and body truly is.  This further supports our learning.  During sex, what is going on in the person's mind strongly affects the entire sexual encounter's progression.  This is called subjective arousal.  Subjective arousal is the reason that many older couples are still able to successfully have intercourse into their old age.  It is so interesting to hear more about how strong the connection between mind and body truly is.

     During Dr. Valli's lecture, we discussed a couple ways that OT interventions could assist clients with participating successfully and maintaining good sexual health.  For example, if an OT was treating a client with rheumatoid arthritis, we could practice inflammation and pain reduction techniques so that he/she could participate in a sexual encounter more comfortably.  We could suggest that the client take a warm bath or shower prior to the interaction or lay heating pads on the bed.  We could also spend time educating the client on various aspects of sexual health when presented with the client's concerns.  Many times there can be issues with sexual well-being and confidence due to body image. Within a group session about sexual health, the topic of body image could be addressed.  Society has placed many constraints on how a woman and man are "supposed" to look, but these views are extremely distorted.  Dr. Valli shared a body image workbook with many discussion topics and activities that we could carry out with clients in a group session to confront their issues with body image.