This is an excerpt of an article published on Evidently Cochrane.
In this blog for our special series The Problem With Sex, pelvic physiotherapist and comedian Elaine Miller @GussieGrips pulls back the covers and shines a torch on health, research, and asking about your sex life
Adult humans are sexual beings and have the right to information, education and services which help make the most of their intimate relationships. Talking about sex can be difficult enough between partners, never mind with your GP – who might be younger than you; or older than you; or knows your partner; or who syringed your ear; or who worships at the same place as you; or is a locum and not the usual friendly face; or who knows you got an STI that time…or…or…
Dr David Haslam has a great talking-about-sex-with-a-patient anecdote :
“Many years ago, I was taking a detailed sexual history from a woman who had been admitted after an overdose. Her sex life was a somewhat unconventional mess and I suspected that one of her sources of difficulty, not to mention frustration, was that her husband had premature ejaculation. So I asked her about it. She clearly didn’t understand any of the terms I was using, so, I asked if it took her husband long to come. “Oh no”, she said. “He just gets the 1a bus from Acocks Green and he’s here in half an hour.”