Brian Alexander, whose card I can’t find and therefore whom I can’t email in person until I track him down through mutual friends OR he sees this and writes me, hint, has an interesting column up about the opening of the San Diego Sexual Medicine this week.
The sex doctors will see you now
I’m delighted at this new “holistic/integrated sexual medicine” center opening up practically next door and at the recognition that sex is a multidisciplinary subject (“Traditionally, primary care physicians would refer a patient to a urologist or ob-gyn, but this may not address the complexities of sexual experience which could require intervention from psychology, endocrinology, neurology or other disciplines”).
At the same time, I wonder what all these progressive doctors (and they are; look what they’re up against; look what they’re doing) are going to do when faced with questions about online sex, polyamory, BDSM, fetishes, transgender, fucking machines and all the other explorations we get ourselves into in this sexually expressive age. Given that one of the doctors is apparently ground-breaking by saying that sex is “a couples’ issue” rather than specific to one gender or to one person’s biology, I can’t wait to see what happens when the first swingers arrive.
Sex is a helluva lot more than a couples’ issue, as my previous post linking to Violet’s interview shows … but that’s not a reason to poo-poo the new clinic. It’s a great step forward just to have the medical field acknowledge sex is important.
They should have Violet and Cory Silverberg and Jamye Waxman come down and talk to them. And send a representative of the center to the Sex 2.0 unconference, too.
1 response so far ↓
1 Essin Em // Jul 27, 2007 at 6:17 am
I find it so interesting (as some one getting a degree in the field of sexuality) that there aren’t more doctors that cater specifically to people with “alternative” sexual lifestyles. Granted, there are now more and more sex therapists who specialize in gender identity and trans issues…but as far as polyamory/non-monogamy, BDSM/lifestyle, genderqueer, non-traditional family, etc, very few doctors publicize catering to these clients (although I have seen a few holistic practioners on W4W on craigslist that say they’re open to these choices).
You’d think that the open minded doctors out there would be putting that fact in neon lights, as there are so few, and they would fill a void for accepting practioners that is clearly needed. While yes, saying you’re open to BDSM clients may alienate some vanilla ones, I believe there would be enough people wanting what they were offering (an open and affirming practioner whom they could trust with their issues) that it would make up for it.
If only I was going for an MD instead of a Master’s of Human Sexuality Education. Sigh…