Getting to grips with erectile dysfunction
By Tim Baker
Pun warning. To help us all overcome the slight awkwardness in discussing this, um, hard topic, my plan is to inject as many puns as possible into this column. See if you can count them all. It's also a, er, handy way of fulfilling the required word count as I have to get this up by the close of business today.
For those of us going through prostate cancer treatment it can be difficult to come to grips with the impacts on our masculinity and sexuality, and we might well feel like life has handed us a stiff fate. But rather than limply accepting this we can grab hold of our potential as sexual beings and celebrate a fuller, more nuanced understanding of sexual pleasure.
One of the best resources I've come across to handle this stuff is A Touchy Subject, a website, online program and YouTube channel for everything related to Erectile Dysfunction and its treatment. The program was started by Victoria Cullen, a sexuality educator, with a Bachelors and Masters in Cognitive Psychology from University College London. In 2015, she co-founded the world's first sex toy design course in an academic setting at RMIT University. As part of the course, she ran a series of interviews with people who had recently purchased a sex toy, and a penny dropped.
"It turns out that many people buying a 'sex toy' were actually looking for a 'sex solution' for physical changes following a life event (childbirth, menopause) or a medical intervention (medication for depression, cancer treatment)," she says.
"A common theme was the lack of conversation and education around what was happening to their bodies. Advice from healthcare was often too 'clinical' to translate into the fun, connecting sexual experience they wanted.
Advice from Google was overwhelming in terms of choice, and not tailored to their specific needs and circumstance. To try and find a balance between the clinical and the pleasurable, I set up a consultancy to match-make people to sexuality solutions for their individual needs."
And so, A Touchy Subject was born. Victoria found an eager collaborator in urologist, Professor Declan Murphy, head of Urology at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. In 2017, she partnered with Professor Murphy, to deliver complimentary consultations as part of his usual care to private Prostatectomy patients.
You can hear his testimonial to Victoria's services here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD3gFfaaWPY
Victoria offers free online resources/programs for erection health through her website www.atouchysubject.com. You can learn about safe, effective sexuality products and therapies through her Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/atouchysubject.
Now, I understand penile meditation might not be everyone's cup of tea but, honestly, how often are you going to find yourself being encouraged to slip your hands down your pants as a form of therapy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZyB3Ilx1FQ
