Indian Medical Association has decided in principle to start courses on sexual health to educate doctors from the next academic year.
Stating that sexual health awareness was not only important for children and adolescents but also for the doctors who need to offer the right counselling and treatment to different age groups when they encounter one problem or the other, IMA national vice-president (headquarters) T. Narasinga Reddy said the IMA Council of Education would prepare the modules and curriculum to facilitate introduction of the courses.
Dr. Reddy told The Hindu on the sidelines of 35th national conference of sexology here on Saturday that educating doctors on the subject was vital as many were not aware of various aspects of sexual health. He said at present, sexual health was not part of curriculum of MBBS and MD courses in India.
Observing that sex was different from sexual health, he said psychiatry and sexual health had heavy demand among the people. He said it was unfortunate that in India talking about sex in the open was still a taboo. Taking advantage of the situation, quacks and self-styled sex specialists were fleecing people by promising ‘miracle cure’ of their sexual ailments.
Dr. Reddy said many in eight to 15 year group were not aware of secondary sexual characters due to which the incidence of teenage pregnancies and sexually-transmitted infections were being reported from various places. Teaching of safe sexual methods at an early age, he felt could prevent several unwanted pregnancies.
Making it very clear that sex was a biological and emotional need of human beings, he said talking about it without any fear would solve several problems. “It speaks about physical and emotional health by integrating with mental and social aspects of one’s personality,” he said.
He said those suffering from diabetes, hypertension and cardiac problems need counselling on sexual health as their requirement would be different from others. Trauma associated with erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation and vaginal atrophy and paediatric and adolescent puberty problems could be overcome with timely counselling.
