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ОБІЗНАНІСТЬ ЛІКАРІВ ПЕРВИННОЇ МЕДИЧНОЇ ДОПОМОГИ З ПИТАНЬ СЕКСУАЛЬНОГО ЗДОРОВ’Я ЧОЛОВІКІВ

Тріщ, Децик

Art of Medicine24 Dec 2025Open access

NobleIDark:/48914/w1/20260526/1FBD10FDDOI10.21802/artm.2025.4.36.53

Abstract

Sexual health is an important component of overall health. To study the awareness of primary care physicians on the prevention and organization of medical care for men with sexual dysfunction, a survey of 200 physicians from 11 communal primary care facilities in the Ivano-Frankivsk region was conducted in 2025. It was found that most primary care physicians are not sufficiently aware of male’s sexual health issues and acknowledge this through self-assessment (42.0 % confirmed a complete lack of knowledge, 51.0 % reported partial lack) and the need to acquire it (77.5 %), particularly about communication with patients (85.5 %). It has been established that the consequences of this insufficient knowledge are non-compliance with preventive technologies by primary care physicians. Only 3 (1.5 %) of respondents admitted that they regularly assess men's sexual health at each visit. Instead, one-third of respondents (32.5 %) never do so, about half (48.0 %) pay attention to it when there are complaints, and another 18.0% do so when there are risk factors. Thus, two-thirds of respondents (71.5 %) stated that, if risk factors are present, they advised their male patients to visit a urologist or sexologist for preventive purposes. Another 15.0% gave such recommendations to all men, but 13.5 % did not give such advice at all. At the same time, most of the surveyed primary care physicians (64.5 %) were convinced that men should visit a urologist-sexologist only when necessary, and a mere 35.5 % believed they should do so for preventive purposes, once (30.0%) or twice (5.5 %) a year. It was found that 70.0±3.2 % of respondents were aware of their role in detecting pathology. At the same time, almost a third (30.0 %) did not consider this to be part of their duties. About half of the surveyed primary care physicians (48.5±3.5 %) assigned the function of detecting sexual disorders to urologists, about one-third to sexologists (30.0±3.2 %) and urologists-andrologists (28.0±3.2 %). As for counseling men with sexual dysfunctions, only one in five surveyed primary care physicians (18.0±2.7 %) knew that they should also be involved in this. The rest obviously considered themselves insufficiently competent and therefore gave the leading roles in counseling such patients to sexologists (69.0±3.3 %), urologists (66.5±3.3 %), and urologists-andrologists (57.0±3.5 %). Just half of respondents (48.5±3.5 %) knew that men with sexual dysfunctions need to be consulted by a psychiatrist or therapist, and 2.5 times fewer (20.5±2.9 %) knew that they need to be consulted by a cardiologist. In total, every fourth surveyed primary care physician (25.0±3.1 %) acknowledged that they should be involved in the follow-up of men with sexual dysfunction, giving priority to the next specialists: urologists (49.5±3.5 %), urologists-andrologists (38.5±3.4 %), or sexologists (38.5±3.4 %). Only 55.5 % of the surveyed primary care physicians had encountered male patients with sexual dysfunction in their practice, which, given their sufficiently long work experience (73.5 % had more than 10 years), qualifications (79.5 % were certified), and an identified knowledge gap, may indicate a potential underdiagnosis of male sexual dysfunction. The results of the study emphasize the need to improve the training of primary care physicians on male sexual health.

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