There are several myths about women’s sexual health that persist in society. For example, I’ve heard a lot of people say they think women don’t enjoy sex as much as men, especially compared to men. There is this misconception that women are never in the mood, but that’s not true. There are also many misconceptions about birth control, such as people thinking it makes women lose their desire for sex.
The importance of addressing misconceptions
Some misconceptions about women’s sexual health might seem innocent, but others can have grave consequences – contributes to the stigmatising of female sexuality, the undercutting of female sexual agency, and the reinforcement of damaging cultural stereotypes Of course, educating the masses isn’t that easy a task, but fighting these misconceptions and ensuring that true information is getting out there is critical for taking another step towards a truly egalitarian society for all.
Misconception: Women have lower sexual desire than men
One stereotype is that men like sex more than women, hence women somehow do not enjoy the experience as much as men. Apart from being outdated, this view – indeed, any survey that confirms it – is simply wrong. Actual women like sex, too. And there are good reasons to seek it.
This doesn’t mean that female sexuality is single-faceted: some women have relatively stable and persistent sexual desire, some have varying sexual desire throughout their life course, and others have very little desire. Nevertheless, it’s important to recognise that women’s sexuality is not always presumed to be stable or matter-of-fact; male pleasure and desire isn’t always presumed to be influenced by stress, hormonal changes and life events in the same way that female sexuality is. Male sexuality is too often assumed to be constant – it’s time to recognise that female sexuality is more nuanced than that.
Addressing the misconception: Understanding the complexity of female sexuality
When you have the misconception that all women have less desire than men, the solution is to have sex-ed classes and to show them films that provide them with information about physical anatomy, about arousal, and most importantly about desire in all its forms. This shows women that there are many out there like them who have never had desire.
The thing is, women are not all like that. Lots of women have very high desire. And you know what? They have all the problems that men have when their sexual partners don’t have desire. But they can’t talk about it. We also need to help women explore the ups and downs of libido. We need to show them that libido varies enormously from one woman to another and that, in the space of five or 10 years, libido can change by a factor of 3, 7 or even 330 – that is, it can go from 200 per month to zero.
Moreover, widespread sex education, which educates on consent, pleasure and communication, can help to liberate women and enable them to embrace and assert their own erotic impulses. A culture that prizes the climatic potential of women’s desire would serve to destigmatise the ‘sexual frustration’ diagnosis and destroy its core premise, which has so harmed women and their sensual lives.
Misconception: Women don’t experience sexual problems
Related to that is the misconception that it’s not a problem if women don’t have desire. This is true for some women, but not for all. For some women, low desire, painful intercourse, orgasm difficulties and other sexual problems are a real issue that should be addressed. Sexual problems can happen to all.
Addressing the misconception: Common sexual problems in women and available treatments
It is also important to eliminate, once and for all, the erroneous belief that women don’t have the same sexual problems as males, by making women and their partners aware of the main common women’s sexual problems and the available treatments. Women can develop a low sexual desire, or they can have problems with female sexual arousal disorder. A woman can have problems with dyspareunia, which in technical terms means pain during penetration, and also problems with anorgasmia.
Giving women reliable information about such problems can reassure them that they’re not unusual, and that there are sources of help available for them to use. Providing women with an opportunity to discuss their concerns directly with a healthcare provider and to see a specialist sexual health service should improve access to therapeutic interventions that can help them manage their sexual problems.
Misconception: Women should not masturbate or explore their own bodies
But another persistent myth is that women shouldn’t masturbate or touch themselves. These misconceptions about women’s sexuality are often bound up with the taboo in which society has shrouded sex with, and a lack of knowledge about what role self-pleasuring plays in women’s sexual health.
Addressing the misconception: The importance of self-pleasure and body exploration for women’s sexual health
Female autoeroticism, while not usually linked to such behaviour, is an important part of women’s sexual life and sexual health. Masturbation helps us learn about our bodies and explore what is pleasurable and gratifying to us. It can also help us have conversations with sexual partners about what we want, and makes women feel more control and competence with their bodies.
Advocating for acceptance of self-pleasure as normal and healthy behaviour could help them stop feeling to some degree of shame or guilt about engaging in the behaviour. That is, normalising conversations about self-pleasure and providing more accurate information about its benefits could help women embrace their sexuality.
Misconception: Women’s sexual health is solely reproductive
Another is the erroneous assumption that women’s sexual health is reproductive health. Reproductive health is of course a component of women’s sexual health, but it is far from being the end-all when it comes to women’s sexual health as an experience and a reality.
Addressing the misconception: Recognizing the holistic nature of women’s sexual health
In particular, women’s sexual health is concerned with issues beyond reproduction, addressing pleasure and intimacy as well as safety and wellbeing within the context of sexual relationships. It encompasses sexual education; communication and conversation; and sexual consent, pleasure and the protection and treatment of sexually transmitted infections. Retraining our perspective on women’s sexual health as something that is physiological and holistic rather than biological and narrow is essential to ensure comprehensive sexual education and healthcare.
Conclusion and encouraging open conversations about women’s sexual health
Ultimately, whether we are women, or friends, family or medical professionals of women, it is imperative that we address these common misconceptions surrounding women’s sexual health to produce more straightforward, accurate and optimistic information and peer-to-peer communication centred on women’s sexual health space in order to improve education and culture.
Overall, women deserve not just a better sexual health life but to have a more informed, safe and judgement-free support system through addressing these myths, empowering self-pleasure and body exploration, and recognising and appreciating the differences in how women become aroused and achieve an orgasm, ultimately leading to a healthy body and mind. We would like to encourage conversations about these myths in order to ensure we are all active participants in the direction of sex-education, as well as increasing resources to help uplift individuals’ sexual health. Together, let’s create a sex-positive and better informed society.
