Abstract
The article deals with the different aspects of human sexuality and develops an approach allowing biopsychosocial diagnosis and treatment of couples afflicted by involuntary childlessness. Here biomedical and psychosocial ways of thinking have to be combined with a view toward the couple.
The possible effects of assisted reproduction on the sexual and partnership experience of the couple must be taken into account. Accordingly, key dimensions of sexuality (attachment, reproduction, and desire) and their relationship to each other, are also discussed. This includes the motives for wanting to have children as well as an understanding of sexuality not only as a means of procreation, but also as a form of body language communication that expresses the quality of the relationship (fulfillment or frustration of basic needs). Not only the potential parents but also the desired child/children depend on this—in sum—mutual “love.” In the context, reproduction as a site for conflict processing (especially for women) is also discussed. Finally, possibilities and limits of couple-related interventions are presented on the basis of an expanded concept of sexuality.
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Beier, K.M., Bartley, J., Köhn, FM. (2023). Involuntary Childlessness from the Perspective of Sexual Medicine. In: Nieschlag, E., Behre, H.M., Kliesch, S., Nieschlag, S. (eds) Andrology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31574-9_44
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