Treating women's sexual difficulties: The body work of sexual therapy

Abstract

This paper seeks to illuminate the interactions of medics and other healthcare practitioners with women's bodies by looking at intervention in the area of women's sexual problems or 'Female Sexual Dysfunction' (FSD). Drawing on data produced in the first empirical study to date of women's accounts of their experiences of seeking and receiving treatment for perceived sexual difficulties, we analyse two treatments for women's sexual difficulties involving direct touch of the body: sexual medicine and pelvic physiotherapy. We adopt the concept of 'body work' as a way of illuminating practitioners' focus on the bodies of patients and the complex, contradictory meanings of genital touch brought by these interactions. We conclude by considering the goals and methods of these sexual therapies, the challenges that practitioners face, and the implications of all the above for women, their bodies, and their capacity for sexual enjoyment. © 2010 The Authors. Sociology of Health & Illness © 2010 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness/Blackwell Publishing Ltd.