Citation

Goldstein I, Goldstein SW. Sex. Med. Rev. 2024; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1093/sxmrev/qeae015

PMID

38462738

Abstract

Sexual health concerns have existed since the earliest recorded history of man, although sexual medicine was not yet recognized as a science. At the turn of the last century in Berlin, Sexualwissenschaft (sexology) was introduced by Iwan Bloch as a science. In the decade that followed, Magnus Hirschfeld researched sexual abnormalities and fought for radical sexual reform. In 1919, he, Friedrich Wertheim, and Arthur Kronfeld founded the Institut für Sexualwissenschaften. It was an institute for public information, scientific research, and treatment of sexual disorders. Unfortunately, it was looted and destroyed by the Nazis. Sexual medicine remained dormant for years after that. In the middle of the last century, we saw sexual health concerns move from the purview of the mental health community, with nomenclature based on the DSM,1 to an understanding that sexual health concerns are biopsychosocial, with the biologic component thus engaging the medical community. Nomenclature and practice guidelines have been written and updated by our various societies, and the upcoming 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases contains a chapter specific to sexual medicine, thanks, in part, to participation of our sexual medicine societies.2

Language: en