Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease: Sex, Sexuality and Self-Esteem

Abstract

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is also known as hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy (HMSN) or peroneal muscular atrophy (PMA) although the latter is rarely used. It is said to be the most common inherited neuromuscular disorder known and statistics have it as affecting one in every 2,500 persons. However, symptoms of CMT are still vastly misunderstood, under diagnosed, misdiagnosed or simply dismissed. Most physicians and health care professionals know the syndrome to affect only the legs and arms from the knees and elbows down, that is what is taught. However, after 14 years of working with people who have CMT all over the world, the main author, Linda Crabtree, has put the sexual concerns of the people who have written to her including lack of feeling, masturbation, hand muscle atrophy and her own experiences of CMT into an article that should change a few minds about the affects of CMT on the sex lives of those who have it.