Opinions of epileptic patients on discussion of their sexual life at surgeries
Opinions of epileptic patients on discussion of their sexual life at surgeries

Summary/Abstract: Human sexuality constitutes a very important part of a man’s life – on one hand, it is a sign of his psychological and physical condition; on the other, it is a sign of a general activity and soundness of the organism [1, 2, 3]. Moreover, sexual satisfaction is an important factor having effect on the general quality of life of epileptic patients [4, 5, 6]. In related literature attention is drawn to the fact that sexual functioning of a man may deteriorate due to degeneration of medical condition [7, 2, 8, 9, 10]. According to Luef (2008), frequent sexual dysfunctions and disorders are observed in epileptic patients appearing more often in this group of patients in comparison with other patients with chronic neurological diseases. On the other hand, the results of research by Fisher et al. (2000) [11] showed that among the factors moulding the quality of life which are impaired in connection with the administration of seizure medications and most often mentioned by epileptic patients was, among other things, their sexual life. As the sexual life play an important role in the recovery process and fosters the improvement of life’s quality in general, it should therefore be the subject of interest of physicians. Meanwhile, the majority of the patients never talk about it with their physicians [12]. Additionally, research into man’s sexual behaviour is scarce – especially with respect to individuals suffering from different diseases. Some of the authors draw attention to the fact that the underlying reason for this situation may be a strong tendency towards examining the factors which can be objectively measured [13]. It seemed interesting for us to examine the opinion of epileptic patients on how often they reach sexual satisfaction and what the most frequent causes of the problems in this sphere of their lives are. Other research objectives also included finding an answer to the question how often, according to the examined individuals, sexuality-related topics are raised and what potential barriers for discussing them the appointment with the physician may be.

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