Intimacy After a Diagnosis

The diagnosis of a neurological condition or a stroke turns your life upside down. Suddenly, you're spending more time visiting doctors and therapists than working, may be unable to participate in activities you love and may find yourself coping with a baffling array of medications and other treatments. But have you ever considered the effect such conditions may have on your sexual life?

Well, if you consider that sex starts in the brain—the center of any neurological illness—it can have quite an impact. Add to that the multiplier effects of fatigue, physical disability, depression and loss of independence, and you can imagine how total the loss might be.

Neurological conditions can affect how you process sexual stimulus, whether it's touch or visual. That can affect your level of desire, your ability to become aroused and your ability to reach orgasm. For instance, studies suggest that as many as 72 percent of women with multiple sclerosis have sexual dysfunction. And women with epilepsy may experience involuntary sexual gestures, such as touching themselves, grabbing their genitals, even having unintended orgasms, even as antiepileptic drugs tend to reduce libido.

No matter what condition you've been diagnosed with, you don't have to resign yourself to a life without sex or intimacy.