How the Four Types of Sexual Dysfunction in Women Affect Relationships and How To Treat Them

Thanks for tuning in to the Armor Men’s Health Hour Podcast today, where we bring you the latest and greatest in medical and urology care and the best urology humor out there.

In this segment,  Dr. Mistry and Donna Lee discuss the four types of sexual dysfunction in women: Dr. Mistry: dysfunction of desire, dysfunction of pain, dysfunction of arousal, and dysfunction of orgasm. Dysfunction is marked by the distress it causes the person experiencing it, so when it comes to sex, if something doesn't bother you, it's not dysfunctional. Many women are not directly bothered by a sexual issue, but are bothered by the effect it is having on their partner--and that, too, counts as dysfunction. Importantly, the types of sexual dysfunctions in women tend to overlap and interact. For example, an issue of pain during sex may cause the development of arousal dysfunction, etc.

Sexual dysfunction is also strongly affected by relationships, and where one partner is experiencing dysfunction, you are likely to find an issue with the other as well. Consequently, treating some types of dysfunction is not enough to fix the issue at hand. For example, if a man is struggling to maintain an erection but his partner isn't interested in sex anyway, treating his ED will not fully resolve the problem. Dr. Mistry explains that there are several medications available to women to treat the different kinds of sexual dysfunction most commonly experienced. These include Viagra, which can help women achieve arousal (as it does for men); Addyi, which increases desire by improving the pleasure center hormone in the brain; and Vyleesi, which is an injection that gradually ramps up desire in women over several hours. If you or a loved one are experiencing sexual dysfunction or would like to learn more about the treatments available for them, please give us a call today!

This episode was previously aired on 8.28.21. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share us with a friend! As always, be well!

Check our our award winning podcast!
https://blog.feedspot.com/sex_therapy_podcasts/

https://blog.feedspot.com/mens_health_podcasts/

Dr. Mistry is a board-certified urologist and has been treating patients in the Austin and Greater Williamson County area since he started his private practice in 2007.

We enjoy hearing from you! Email us at armormenshealth@gmail.com and we’ll answer your question in an upcoming episode!

Phone: (512) 238-0762
Email: Armormenshealth@gmail.com
Website: Armormenshealth.com

Our Locations:

Round Rock Office
970 Hester’s Crossing Road
Suite 101
Round Rock, TX 78681

South Austin Office
6501 South Congress
Suite 1-103
Austin, TX 78745

Lakeline Office
12505 Hymeadow Drive
Suite 2C
Austin, TX 78750

Dripping Springs Office
170 Benney Lane 
Suite 202
Dripping Springs, TX 78620

Transcript

Welcome back to the Armor Men's Health Hour with Dr. Mistry and Donna Lee.

Dr. Mistry: Hello and welcome to the Armor Men's Health Hour. This is Dr. Mistry, board certified urologist and happy host of this show, here joined by my cohost , my business development manager for our practice, longtime friend, Donna Lee .

Donna Lee: That's right. I'm also a board certified cohost . Thank you for listening.

Dr. Mistry: Board certifiable by her psychiatrist.

Donna Lee: Shhh. HIPAA violation.

Dr. Mistry: This show is brought to you by the urology practice NAU Urology Specialists that I started in 2007. We specialize in the wide array of urologic care for both men and women. Well , we are proud to have four offices throughout town open to seeing new patients. My practice really specializes in men's health , like men's fertility. I do advanced sexual dysfunction in both men and women. That's where I see a lot of the women. We do incontinence treatment in women and men, both. Prostate cancer, advanced prostate surgery, robotic surgery. I have a strong interest in optimizing men's health through testosterone, and that's a lot about what this show's about. That's a lot about what our practice is about, and if you're out there looking for help or wanting a second opinion on your urologic diagnosis, we're here to help you. Donna, how do people get ahold of us and where are our offices?

Donna Lee: You can call us at (512) 238-0762 . Our website is armormenshealth.com, and our email address where you can send your amazing questions to is armormenshealth@gmail.com. Our podcasts are free wherever you listen to podcasts. And we talk about everything and anything. And I thought we'd talk about the word dysfunction today.

Dr. Mistry: You know, this week in the clinic , there were several reminders today about how our focus on men's health is one that really has to involve several things having to do with women's health. And I thought that was interesting. I had a , a 66 year old man who came into the office, just struggling with his erection. We've worked on him and done shockwave on him and put him on meds and fixed his testosterone, his erections were great. And then he goes, "Well, I don't know how much it's going to matter. My wife doesn't want it anyway." And then I had another guy, 77 year old veteran, very big proponent of shockwave for ED. He wants us to go and fight to the VA to say that shockwave should be paid for. And after all of that, he's like, "Well, it doesn't really matter, anyway. My wife doesn't want to have sex anyway." And I was like, "Oh my Lord. That [inaudible] a lot of...you've been to the office 12 times. Like this was a lot of time commitment on our part, for nothing?"

Donna Lee: Lots of mail and emails, yeah.

Dr. Mistry: And so it reminds me again, and, and the first guy was like, "Well, I don't want to bring it up with my wife because I don't want to get her mad." And I was like, "Well, I guess it must not be that important to you."

Donna Lee: "Did my husband come in again to see you?"

Dr. Mistry: I don't...So first and foremost, I think everybody would agree that a healthy communication about something that was a real big part of life at least when you were younger, I think is perfectly acceptable. But I think if it's like, "I can't believe you don't want to have sex with me anymore!" I think that's probably the wrong take.

Donna Lee: We have a patient that did that. He came in the couple came in and the provider told me about it and said that the man was super upset that his wife didn't want to have sex three times a day. They're having sex once a day. But he was really pissed off that they weren't having sex three times a day. So I wanted to go find that guy and slap him upside the head. But I did not.

Dr. Mistry: You cannot do that.

Donna Lee: Why not?

Dr. Mistry: That's, that's also not appropriate.

Donna Lee: I think every woman listening would be in agreement with me.

Dr. Mistry: I don't think every single one.

Donna Lee: Well, something's wrong with you if you want sex three times a day and you're over the age of 50.

Dr. Mistry: And then I saw a guy this week and he is in his seventies. His wife, he's a widow, a widower, and he's about to get married again. And his, his new wife, who's also in her seventies, he goes, "She can't get enough!" And these are some...

Donna Lee: Stop it. Is he rich? Is she tricking him?

Dr. Mistry: "Is she tricking him?" Once he's married, it's all done.

Donna Lee: ...it's over.

Dr. Mistry: It's all done.

Donna Lee: That's right. That's something I would do.

Dr. Mistry: I know the tricks. "Something I would do."

Donna Lee: Ask Michael.

Dr. Mistry: So I thought I'd talk a little bit about what options we have available for common sexual dysfunctions in women.

Donna Lee: And define dysfunction, 'cause I feel like when I heard dysfunction when I first started with you, I feel like something was like physically broken, but that could mean like trauma, mental, emotional trauma from the past. Like all sorts of different things fall under the umbrella of dysfunction. Right?

Dr. Mistry: Understood. And I think that really the key part of dysfunction is that it has to cause distress to the woman. So the woman who doesn't want to have sex and doesn't care, that one we can never fix.

Donna Lee: Oh, that's me.

Dr. Mistry: Yeah. Right. So we're not fixing you. We cannot, I don't know what analogy I can use, but you cannot make that dog hunt sometimes.

Donna Lee: That's the wrong analogy.

Dr. Mistry: Okay. You cannot, you cannot make someone who is not bothered by something change their behavior. Now, if they're bothered, sometimes they're bothered because their husband's bothered. Now that counts as bothered.

Donna Lee: Right. That's bothered.

Dr. Mistry: But if they're not even bothered by that, you're not fixing anything.

Donna Lee: Oh, okay. Well I have guilt. Is that bothered?

Dr. Mistry: Yeah. That's a little, that's a little that , that is definitely bothered. That's exactly, in fact, the definition of bothered. Okay. So if you're out there, the , the four most common dysfunctions that a woman can have sexually are a dysfunction of desire, a dysfunction of pain, a dysfunction of arousal, and a dysfunction of orgasm. So those are the four.

Donna Lee: That's a lot.

Dr. Mistry: And we, the interesting thing is hormones play a big role in all of them. And they're all kind of linked, because if you have pain, you're not going to have desire. If you have low desire, you may have poor arousal and you may have pain. So the four kind of interact like a circular fashion, not just a linear, one comes before the next. And so we treat that in the same way. And when I teach sexual issues to medical students, I make sure they know that men and women, when it comes to sex, are pretty much the same. It's the same body parts, it's the same hormones, it's the same blood reflexes. Everything's the same. Every part in a woman, there's a corresponding part in the man, embryologically. When we approach a women's sexual health. We think about it in that way. Not that, "Oh, it just must be some mystery that no one can figure out how a woman gets turned on." Well, guess what? Pick up the socks, do the laundry, don't cause her stress, make sure the kids are going to bed...

Donna Lee: Give her a credit card.

Dr. Mistry: No.

Donna Lee: Yeah. Give her a credit card.

Dr. Mistry: No. We're not paying.

Donna Lee: A limitless credit card.

Dr. Mistry: That's a different kind of girl.

Donna Lee: See, it still works.

Dr. Mistry: [inaudible] So hormone replacement, so a women going through menopause, a lack of testosterone and estrogen can cause a drop in your desire to have sex. It can also cause lubrication problems. If you have a history of breast cancer or are concerned about breast cancer, I can only tell you that the data does not support that hormone replacement causes breast cancer. It does not support that. If you are peri-menopausal, meaning just around menopause or just within 10 years of menopause, and you take hormones, your breast cancer risk, Alzheimer's risk, and cardiovascular death risk goes down. So, so if you are, if you are making decisions out there based on old data, you're actually doing a disservice to yourself. Go find a hormone specialist, get the right information. If you have a history of breast cancer or adamantly against taking hormones, we have other treatment options. So we have, if you have decreased arousal--you know, these women and men, they always ask , "Well, why isn't there Viagra for women?" And what do I always say?

Donna Lee: "There is, it's called Viagra."

Dr. Mistry: It's called Viagra. And so, if you have , but you have to have the same problem. In a man, if you have low desire, you don't take Viagra. But if you're , can't get an erection, you take Viagra. So in a woman, if you're not getting sexually aroused, that's when Viagra will work. And the classic woman who , who benefits from it is the one who's on antidepressants , like Effexor or...

Donna Lee: Wellbutrin?

Dr. Mistry: No, not Welbutrin , but like , the SSRIs, we call them. So...

Donna Lee: Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors.

Dr. Mistry: That's right.

Donna Lee: Ooh, I get a gold star.

Dr. Mistry: You know that a little too well. And so , that's a woman who can't get aroused, can't get orgasm who will benefit from Viagra. We also have a medicine called Flibanserin also known as Addyi. It works to , it works to improve the pleasure center hormone in our brain and works very well to get increased desire in women. So if you're not interested in hormones, but interested in something else, Addyi is a wonderful option. And then there's one that doesn't sound so great, but is awesome, and that's called Vyleesi. It is an injection that you take. So let's say that you and your husband have like a planned date on Friday, but you're really, really not into it. And it's harder and harder to convince you to do that Friday night.

Donna Lee: There's a camera in our house, I'm convinced. How do you know these things?

Dr. Mistry: How do I know all these things? So Vyleesi is perfect for you guys. You know, you, you take the injection, it's just a sub-q injection, and your desire will greatly ramp up , you know, throughout the course of the next four or five hours. And so something that you are going to be dreading, maybe picking a fight to avoid, whatever it is.

Donna Lee: This is a lot of work to have sex. I mean, wow.

Dr. Mistry: Well, you know, sexual intimacy , especially for couples, you know, 40 and over, there is definitely a use it or lose it issue. Young couples can go through phases of where they are hot and cold, but older couples, they usually kind of fade. And so, and once you develop habits and habits in the relationship , you oftentimes can't go backwards. So this may be an uncomfortable conversation and you may have already flipped the radio station, but it's the , it's the, it's the realities. And if you're a woman out there and you know that your low sexual desire is affecting, you know, your intimacy as a couple, and you're a husband out there who doesn't want to talk about it, we're a wonderful place to come to. Because once you have ED and she has low sexual desire, that's the beginning of the end, because, you know , you're not going to jump in the game if you can't hit a home run and if she doesn't want to play the game, then there's a good excuse to sit on the bench.

Donna Lee: Mhmm. I noticed my sexual desire goes up a little bit if my husband gets me a Louis Vuitton purse.

Dr. Mistry: I don't know if we can all afford that.

Donna Lee: Mm. Well...

Dr. Mistry: Donna, how do people get ahold of us?

Donna Lee: Call us at (512) 238-0762 or you can send your emails to, email questions to armormenshealth@gmail.com. Our website is armormenshealth.com. And as you know our podcasts, they're just for you, and they're amazing, and they're free!

The Armor Men's Health Hour is brought to you by Urology Specialists. For questions, or to schedule an appointment, please call 512-238-0762 or online at armormenshealth.com.