Document Type
Book
Files
Download Full Text (240 KB)
Description
People who identify as asexual use this label because, rather than a sexual orientation like “heterosexual,” “homosexual”, or “bisexual,” which labels attraction by gender, they experience a lack of sexual attraction. Previous psychological research on the topic asexuality is limited, but one conclusion agreed upon by several studies is that people who identify as asexual differ from those diagnosed with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) in several ways, the most notable of which is that asexual people were shown typically to have little or no distress related to their lack of sexual desire, whereas distress is a key part of the diagnosis of HSDD. The question of this research is whether those findings are reflected accurately in the practice of real-world health professionals, or whether health professionals consider asexuality to be related to mental or physical health problems. This is achieved by surveying individuals who self-identify as asexual about their experiences with healthcare practitioners. We expect to find that in at least some cases, asexual people who did reveal their sexual identities to health professionals would encounter negative reactions from the practitioners, due to pathologizing attitudes still present in the medical establishment toward asexuality.
Publication Date
4-2017
Keywords
Asexuality (Sexual orientation); Asexual people--Health and hygiene; Medical personnel
Disciplines
Gender and Sexuality | Medicine and Health
Recommended Citation
Flanagan, Shelby, "Asexual-Identified People’s Interactions with Health Care Practitioners" (2017). Undergraduate Research Symposium 2017. 9.
https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/urs_2017/9
Primo Type
Conference Proceeding