After writing an article about male sexual performance anxiety some years ago I was inundated with requests for appointments. Most of these clients are men aged between 18 and 40 years old. They told me after reading my article they felt I wrote about them. All of them believed they suffer from some sort of sexual dysfunction, such as premature ejaculation, difficulties getting an erection, repeated loss of erection, difficulties ejaculating or an inability to ejaculate at all.
Sexual performance anxiety occurs when a man anticipates a problem during the sexual act and as a result becomes anxious or panics while attempting to be sexually active. Many men, regardless of age, relationship or orientation suffer from this condition at some time in their lives. In my opinion some men who are diagnosed with low sexual desire actually have acquired performance anxiety and are avoiding sex instead.
A man’s sexual performance is often perceived as synonymous with his identity and ability to be a man. Sex should be a pleasurable experience but it’s very difficult when men have performance anxiety, especially when they are not aware of it and worry and suffer in silence.
I help my clients understand the issues that can cause the anxiety, discuss how to reduce or eliminate them and provide psycho- sexual education, tips and techniques depending on the problem.
They usually don’t need more than one or two sessions.