Major changes are proposed for definitions of female sexual dysfunction

The definitions of female sexual dysfunction and its disorders of desire, arousal, orgasm, and pain are facing a major overhaul as part of the current revision of the influential Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

A working group for the American Psychiatric Association, which produces the manual, has proposed new definitions that give greater acknowledgment to the relationship context of women’s sexual difficulties and new criteria to raise the threshold for diagnosis.

Describing current criteria for “hypoactive sexual desire disorder” as being “highly problematic,” a member of the working group, Lori Brotto, a psychologist and assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, wrote …