Many chronic pain patients suffer from sexual problems. This is an equally important issue among men and women. This problem can lead into confidence issues and major emotional conflicts. Sexual impairment can cause depression and in turn, depression can contribute into sexual impairment. This problem may stem from different reasons. The pain itself may be so disturbing that would impair sexual function. Lower back pain and pelvic pain are common conditions that cause sexual impairment. Some neuropathic pelvic conditions may be so severe that make sexual encounter impossible. Infectious or inflammatory conditions of pelvic area can also contribute to this problem.
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Your doctor can help with all aspects of pain but
the healing comes from inside you.
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Chronic pain and depression are hand to hand conditions. Most of chronic pain patients have many personal, financial, employment and social problems due to their pain induced limitations. With all these issues, it would not be surprising if one would become depressed. One of the signs of depression is lack of any pleasurable feelings.
Chronic pain patients who use different medications suffer, as a side effect, a lack of sexual desire. Narcotic medications when used for a long period of time can decrease the Testostrone level and cause impotence. Some anti-depressant medications that are used for pain or depression can show the side effect of impotence or lack of sexual interest.
Anxiety is common with depression and often these conditions are linked together. Stress and pain can increase anxiety, especially performance anxiety, which would in turn lead into sexual impairment. Poor circulation of blood or nerve problems also causes sexual difficulties. For example, this can be the case for some diabetic patients with blood circulation problems or diabetic neuropathy.
As we can see many reasons can cause sexual problems for chronic pain patients. It is essential that a proper evaluation be done for proper diagnosis of the root causes before one would jump to using medications or injections to solve it.
Relaxation techniques, pelvic exercises, treatment of underlying infection or inflammation, hormone replacement and proper depression and pain control may be needed before one would resort to sexual performance enhancing medications. Meditation practices can help by bringing the mind to the present time and help increase the focus on the pleasure sensation and ultimately improve the sexual function.
It is time to put taboos aside and start an open dialogue about all chronic pain related issues, including sexual disturbances.
