Answer:
by Annette Owens: (06/02/2004)
Since I do not have much experience with patients
with Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) syndrome, I checked
with a neurologist who treats patients with this
disease. He has never encountered problems with
sexual dysfunction among his patients with CMT. He
passed the following reference on to me:Bird TD, Lipe
HP, Crabtree LD: Impotence associated with the
Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome. European Neurology;
1994; 34, 155-157. If you do not have a medical library
near you, a public library can most likely get you a copy
of this article, if you are interested.
The lack of information about sexual problems related
to CMT does not necessarily imply that these problems
do not exist in that particular patient population. It may
be that patients hesitate to mention sexual concerns at
their check-ups. Do you have the possibility to meet
with a sex therapist? A sexuality specialist would be
able to inquire about the nature of your problem
achieving orgasm. On the basis of a detailed history,
the sexual health professional would then be able to
guide you with respect to which treatment would be
best for you, and whether a trip to a urologist is
recommended or not. You can contact www.aasect.org
for information about how to find a sex therapist near
you. Do you have a sexual partner, or are you single?
How do you masturbate? Do you have any guilt feelings
related to masturbation?
To give you an idea about how frequently people in the
USA masturbate, I will cite a few numbers from a
recent study, "The Social Organization of Sexuality.
Sexual Practices in the United States" (1994) by
Lauman, E.O. et al.; University of Chicago Press. A
more popular version of this book is called "Sex in
America. A Definitive Study" (1994) by Michael, R.T. et
al.; Warner Books. The study involved 3,432 men and
women from all social, educational, cultural, and
religious backgrounds, and living all over the USA. Since
participants in the study were chosen randomly by a
computer program, the study population is highly
representative of the entire nation. Following are the
numbers of people who masturbate once a week or
more: men 26.7%, women 7.6%; numbers of people
who masturbate not at all: men 36.7%, women 58.3%.
These numbers clearly show that masturbation is a
common practice in our culture. However, it is
interesting to note that 54.0% of men and 46.8% of
women do feel guilty after masturbation.
I do encourage you to explore your own sexuality, and
find out what feels good to you. It may be that you
need more stimulation, and that using vibrating sex toys
would provide the necessary amount of stimulation in
order to reach orgasm. Check out the Good Vibrations
web site at www.goodvibes.com for ideas and
suggestions. They also carry a book called "The new
Good Vibrations guide to sex" which I can recommend
reading.
Good luck! Annette Owens, MD PhD Reviewed by Sexual Health Editorial Team
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