44
17
th
Congress of the European Society for Sexual Medicine
Workshops
7 February 2015
WS-06
WORKSHOP
09:00–10:00
Auditorium 12
Vulvodynia, vestibulodynia and sexual pain disorders
(diagnosis, examination and treatment)
Experts: Johannes Bitzer, Switzerland, Lior Lowenstein,
Israel, Gidenon Sartorius, Switzerland
Chairs: Johannes Bitzer, Switzerland,
Lior Lowenstein, Israel
Audience:
The workshop is designed for physicians, physio-
therapist, psychologists involved in the care for women who
complain about provoked and unprovoked pain in the vulvar
region as well as those women who suffer from dyspareunia.
Aim:
Present and discuss standard operating procedures
for care by giving background evidence based information,
showing and discussing gaps in knowledge and how to
handle these gaps in clinical practice, apply knowledge
and skills some case discussion.
Learning objectives
e
To learn: How to encourage patients to talk about
complaints in an intimate region and pain related to
sexuality; Understand and differentiate the clinical
entities and the diagnostic categories and apply a
diagnostic algorithm, know about the biological,
psychological and interactional causes of the symp-
toms and know how to assess them. Find solutions in
a process of shared decision making
e
To be able to care for these patients in a patients
centered individualized way
Summary of contents
Knowledge:
Clinical entities, classification, diagnostic al-
gorithm, SOPs, therapeutic options
Skills:
Communication, questions to ask, examination
Attitude:
Patient centeredness, empathy, patience
WS-07
WORKSHOP
11:00–12:00
Auditorium 12
How to improve patients’ satisfaction and compliance
Expert: John Dean, United Kingdom
Chair: Paraskevi-Sofia Kirana, Greece
Audience:
Physicians and psychologists treating men and
women with sexual dysfunctions.
Aim:
To help clinicians tailor their daily clinical practice
in ways that improve patient’s satisfaction and compliance
with medication and treatment strategy.
Learning objectives
e
To understand the significance of treatment satisfacti-
on and compliance in the field of sexual medicine
e
To understand the relationship between satisfaction
and compliance
e
To recognize factors that lead to non compliance and
low treatment satisfaction
e
To become familiar with practical skills that improve
patients’ satisfaction and compliance
Summary of contents
Compliance with treatment strategies is a very important
clinical issue in sexual medicine. In prescribing medica-
tion, compliance means "the extent to which the patient
takes the medication as prescribed". Many organic sexual
dysfunctions require life long medication use, while in
psychogenic cases, medication use is often intended to
gradually decrease as patients become more competent.
Although significant advances in medications have been
made for the treatment of sexual dysfunctions, non com-
pliance rates are very high, and this often leads to relapse,
disappointment and low treatment satisfaction. It must be
noted, that in many cases, non compliance refers not only
to under use but also overuse of medication. Therefore,
enhancing compliance (or preventing noncompliance) is
an important treatment goal for patients and clinicians. In
addition, sexual dysfunctions that require non pharmaco-
logical treatment methods have high drop out rates. The
following categories of factors that affect treatment satis-
faction and compliance will be discussed: Patient charac-
teristics, the treatment setting, treatment characteristics,
clinical features of the dysfunction/disorder, clinician ex-
pertise. Although knowledge of these factors is the first
step, it is not enough to improve patient’s compliance and
satisfaction. Other steps include the establishment of a
strong alliance with the patient, patient education about
the dysfunction and the importance of maintenance treat-
ment, patient education about the medication, drug inter-
actions, pharmacokinetics and side effects, costs etc,
combining medication prescription with sexuality educa-
tion aiming to enhance the effectiveness of medication.
Part of the workshop will address specific ways to improve
compliance and satisfaction respectively, for each of the
most common sexual dysfunctions of men and women.
