The November issue of Virtual Mentor, the AMA’s online ethics journal, isn’t as racy as it sounds. But the issue warrants attention by physicians in practice and training alike as they seek to navigate their role in commenting on sexual behavior in the context of clinical conversations.
Beyond treating dysfunction in human sexual reproduction, medicine has acquired a normative role—alongside the law and religion—in commenting on sexual behavior. This month’s issue of the ethics journal looks at how physicians got that role, how well they function in validating norms of sexual conduct, and their actual and possible advisory roles.
Among other topics, contributors to the issue discuss the profession’s formal guide to sexual disorders—the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)—and propose ways in which physicians can improve how they talk with patients about sex-related concerns.
Highlights this month include:
- “Interviewing a patient about intimate partner violence.” Charles Moser, MD, PhD, argues that in the same way that physicians learn about normal variations in blood pressure, they need to learn about “normal” variations in sexual interests and practices.
- “Will risk compensation accompany pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV?” Jill Blumenthal, MD, and Richard H. Haubrich, MD, discuss how an intervention that reduces the perceived risk of a given behavior may cause a person to increase risky behavior.
- “Medicine, sexual norms and the role of the DSM.” Leonore Tiefer, PhD, writes that every physician should know that erotic pleasures occur in more diverse situations than one can imagine and that gender identity is a complicated idea.
Don’t forget to listen to this month’s special podcast featuring Drew Pinsky, MD, commonly known as “Dr. Drew,” who discusses educating the public about love, sex and relationships.
And this month’s ethics poll asks readers to weigh in on a practical question: “Do you think the medical profession should take public positions on topics having to do with sexual behavior and sex education?”
