Male sexuality and sexual offences.

Men in contemporary western societies differ from women regarding several sexual expressions. For example, men show a more stationary, linear sexual desire, more often separate sex-life from love-life, engage in heterosexual or homosexual one-night-stands and more often buy sex from a prostitute. Some sexual deviations manifest themselves only in males. Most sexual offences are committed by mean. Sexual assaults are, of course, unacceptable. But sexual offences are often a token of powerlessness when failing in relation to oneself and/or other people. Thus not only victims of sexual assaults, but also the perpetrators need help in order to prevent further sexual assaults. In the paper some experiences with therapy of sexual offenders in Denmark and Germany are discussed.

Frequency of sexual problems and sexual dysfunction in middle-aged Danish men.

The frequency of sexual dysfunction of a representative group of Danish middle-aged men was recorded, using a questionnaire and an interview that contained, respectively, 12 and 23 questions about sexual problems. The study sample consisted of 439 51-year-old men, all of whom received the questionnaire. Of these men, 100 were also interviewed. Interviewed men more frequently reported erectile dysfunction and previous contact with a therapist due to sexual problems at interview than in the questionnaire. Thus, 16 men (4% of the study population) who reported erectile dysfunction in the questionnaire constituted only a fraction of the true number. At interview nearly 40% of the men reported some kind of sexual dysfunction. There were, however, only 7% who found their problems abnormal for their age--and only 5% of the interviewed men intended to seek treatment for their problems.

[Addiction to drugs and alcohol among physicians and nurses]. / Medicin- og alkoholmisbrug blandt laeger og sygeplejersker.

A retrospective investigation based on case reports was undertaken concerning abuse of alcohol and drugs among medical staff, 44 doctors and 23 nurses, who were treated in the Department of Psychiatry, Rigshospitalet during the period 1970-1982, all of whom received treatment for more than six months. By the end of 1987, a marked excessive mortality was found and this was greatest among doctors among whom 50% had died with an average age of 45.5 years. Factors which were found to be of significance for the prognosis for duration of survival in this selected material were 1) duration of the abuse of medicine, 2) presence of mixed alcohol and drug abuse and 3) previous suicidal attempts.

Male and female transsexualism: the Danish experience with 37 patients.

Since the first sex-reassignment operation in Denmark at the Rigshospitalet in 1951, a total of 37 patients, 29 males and 8 females, have had sex-modifying surgery and a change in legal status. In our experience a basic insecure gender identity is a predominant trait in transsexuals, dating back to earliest childhood. This insecurity and a concomitant anxiety are overcome differently by the two transsexual sexes. In male transsexualism, the most outstanding characteristic is a narcissistic withdrawal to a condition marked by submission and pseudofeminity. Anxiety and insecurity are basic to the gender dysphoria but are subdued by means of fantasy escape and gratification in aestheticized ego-ideals with suppression of aggressive and sexual feelings. This results in the often observed pseudofeminity in the male transsexual. A core group of transsexual males are marked by a persistent pseudofeminine narcissism. They have stable ego strength, are agenital in sexual attitude, and have an intact sense of reality. This group is expected to remain so after sex reassignment. The transsexual female assumes a narcissistic, phallic attitude displaying outer activities and caricatured masculine manners in an attempt to subdue her insecurity. Examples are given of the characteristic splitting of these persons' phenomenological ego-experiences and how different their reality testing is from that of psychotic persons with a desire for sex change. Transsexual females are much more sexually active than transsexual males. We find a closer connection between female homosexuality and transsexualism than between male homosexuality and transsexualism.

Transsexuality: some remarks based on clinical experience.

People with severe gender identity problems have always existed. Some hope to find a solution to their deep intrapersonal conflicts in a so-called sex transformation. The term 'transsexual' was coined by Cauldwell in 1949 and since then an unknown number of people all over the world, probably more biological men than women, have undergone a hormonal and surgical sex-transformation procedure. In this chapter we discuss the impossibility of real sex change from man to woman and vice versa. We briefly touch on two classical cases of sex transformation with some connection with Denmark: the Lili Elbe case of 1930 and the famous Chris Jorgensen case from the early fifties. We discuss the incidence of transsexuality and follow-up studies of patients, and give preliminary results from a Danish study of 110 people (81 men and 29 women) who during the past 25 years have applied for a sex-change operation. Of these, 56 individuals (42 men and 14 women) have had such operations. These are minimum figures since some transsexuals are known to have had operations in other countries but have not contacted Danish hospitals or health personnel.

Course in basic sexology for medical students.

The present article describes the pilot course in basic sexology for medical students. The duration of the course was 5 days (35 hours). The themes-sex and gender, sexual physiology, contraception, sexual inadequacy, sexual deviations, and sexual counselling-were approached from many different angles. The teaching procedure comprised lectures, group work, and group discussions, internal television, films, plenary discussions, and debates. The course was evaluated by means of the sex knowledge and attitude test (SKAT) given before and after the course. Furthermore an evaluation was given by the students, by a professional teacher, and by a paramedical evaluator at the end of the course. The results showed significant changes in attitudes and knowledge.