Women’s Sexual Health Interview

Women’s Sexual Health Interview

A Women’s Sexual Health Program has been launched in Australia to help women who experience sexual dysfunction issues because a recent study revealed nearly half of all sexually active women in Australia never, or rarely, achieve orgasm during sex, and 63% of women are in fact ‘faking’ orgasms with their partners.

We spoke with Dr. Chris Fenton, one of the Advanced Medical Institutes (AMI’s) leading doctors working on the Sexual Health Program and Olivia DeVere one of the Sex Education Correspondents also known as Lady ‘O’.

Interview Women's Sexual Health - Dr Chris Fenton & Olivia DeVere

Explain the Women’s Sexual Health Program?

Dr. Chris Fenton : There is an issue, with women in regards to sexual activity, there are an awful lot of women who have never climaxed in their life and also a lot of women who are having great difficulty climaxing either through self-stimulation or through sexual activity with their partner. Then there are an awful lot of women who have lost desire, who don’t want to have lost desire, if you are completely at peace with having no desire that’s fine, but one of the definition of loss of desire means it is causing a person to stress. We have these situations which sometimes they are single, who still would like to have a return of being a women, feeling like a women and having a sexuality and be able to climax and release. Then there are many, many women in relationships who are distressed by the fact that they feel their relationship is fine, they feel very warmly towards their partner but they have no interest in sex anymore and they get no pleasure from sex anymore.

In the past we have had many good approaches to this problem, they can go so far, but we believe that the biological component of this issue is very profound, there is an awful lot of science to back this up. What we are doing is trying to return libido to these women through biological means and we are also trying to return arousal and the ability to receive clitoral stimulation and increase sensitivity to a point so that women can climax. We are having enormous success and although the science is well known and clinical trials have been done, overseas, we are really not aware of anybody on a large scale who is really clinically treating women in the way that we are.


How do you operate?

Olivia DeVere : Hundreds of women are calling us every week and they speak to one of the doctors assistances and they often fill in an assessment sheet, that way we can direct their call. Females speak to female clients, we ask them things like; how their relationship is, whether or not they self-stimulate, how often or if they have ever orgasmed in their life. These questions are asked very calmly because often the women are quite distressed, we then have an understanding of how to assess this client. From there they go on to speak with a registered AMI Doctor and assesses, the situation is assess from there.


What is the Sexual Health Program?

Dr. Chris Fenton : There is a sexual health program and that includes the medical side. There are two things we are treating, the first is the loss of desire, the way we treat that is with a spray. The spray goes through the blood and there are receptors for this both in the genital region and most importantly in the brain. In the brain it causes a release that brings back a desire for a lot of things, brings back a desire for life almost and a desire for sex. Women will begin to feel desire, desire is defined as such as presence of sexual thoughts or sexual fantasies. Those things begin to spontaneously come back and the other thing is it prevents the release of prolactin.

One of the interesting thing about women that ring us, many, many of them have lost their libido completely after having children. When you give birth prolactin is released to cause milk to engorge the breast. Prolactin is also released after a women has an orgasm, which causes that retraction period where you don’t really feel like sex at all. If after a long period of breast feeding or after the release of prolactin many women experience a state where prolactin, the hormone, just hangs around, really the libido is just gone. The spray then raises levels in the brain and then it goes through the body and causes the prolactin levels to fall.

We ask women to use the spray every day in the evening and over a steadily period of time women will feel a return of desire.

There is also a gel, the gel contains three prescription pharmaceuticals and when you apply them it greatly increases circulation and lubrication to the area and most importantly it brings on a clitoral erection. It is clearly demonstrated that a soft clitoris, just like a soft penis is almost unable to be stimulated and you certainly can not climax with a soft penis, same as a soft clitoris. When you bring on a clitoris erection you receive a sensation and it is possible to stimulate the clitoris to achieve an orgasm. The three pharmaceuticals have been put into a gel that directly work with the tissue of the clitoris. It is very effective, it can work in two minutes, she can feel her clitoris swelling and getting firmer. A women who has lost her sexual desire can feel aroused by this and she can reach a stimulation that results in a climax.

As an example about a third of the women who ring us have never orgasmed in their lives, many of those go onto climax every time.


Where you surprised by the results, that 63% of women are in fact ‘faking’ orgasms?

Olivia DeVere : I was astounded that I would listen to hundreds of women and I was astounded with the problems they had. They had been in a relationship for twelve years and may not have ever had an orgasm or only had them when they were younger. Some younger girls wanted to have multiple orgasms, which with the clitoris gel is actually achievable, which is groundbreaking technology. What we also do is support these women by putting them on a program. This is going across women from 18 to women in their 80’s and it is a common problem coming up. We are trying to bridge that taboo in society, it is a sexual health issue.


Why do women ‘fake-it’?

Dr. Chris Fenton : Because there is an enormous pressure, a women gets a clear knowledge that a man wants to be a success sexually, he really wants his partner to be enjoying it. Once he becomes aware that he is climaxing and she is never, or rarely climaxing he starts to feel like he is imposing himself on the women. The women don’t want him to feel bad, because that ends up causing all types of tension in the relationship so they ‘fake it’.< br>

Explain the program?

Olivia DeVere : A program can run up to a year, involved in that program is the medication we also give and encourage kegel exercises and pelvic floor exercises. Also included is herbal supplements and a DVD, booklet, a optional vibrator and ongoing counseling and coaching for the women in the program. They can call and talk to us about what is going on and their progress and motivation. We coach them to achieve that sexual goal and maintain their sexual health.


Is it mostly women in relationships who use this program?

Olivia DeVere : Yes. A lot of them are in very happy relationships, like they love their husbands and they want to make their husbands happy, they just don’t have any desire and they want to get that back. A healthy sex life will always roll into your personal life, career, conversation, health and relationship. These women desperately want it, particularly if they have lost it, if they have had it and no longer have it. They may have had children, or they are tired and have toddlers or if they have gone through menopause, they’ve had body changing isssues; these are the types of women I speak to every day, with these solid symptoms. The AMI program is a unique program, there is nothing else out there like it. It also works.


Do singles use the program?

Dr. Chris Fenton : There are a lot of women who ring us that are single and they really want their own sexuality back. Women are in all sorts of relationships, they are in married relationships, they are in de facto relationships they are in boyfriend relationships. There are a disproportioned number of women who love women, who ring us. It is interesting because we still ask “are you happy with your partner”, “do you feel love towards your partner?” We ask these questions because if there are relationship problems then we think medication isn’t the right way to go but women may have lost their desire. There are many different groups.


What is the average age of women in the program?

Dr. Chris Fenton : Fascinating. It is a really interesting demographic. I think our oldest caller has been around 83 and our youngest call, because we cannot take calls from anyone under 18, has been 18 year olds. You are a little cautions with really young people but of course there are some pretty sexually aware and active younger people. It is interesting from memory the group that don’t call are those girls in their 30 to 40’s. We have had success with a very high proportion of those that ring. It is a really interesting thing about those who receive a response and those that don’t. Women in their 30’s are at a peak busy time of their life, they have so little time to think about anything, they probably don’t have time to make the phone call to us.

20 year olds, being generation Y are pretty assertive in regards to if their sex life is satisfactory or if it’s not. If it is not they are going to take action to make it so, they are an interesting group and they are on the front foot of the program.

Apart from that one low decade every other decade is represented about equally in the course. The thing is the stress that the callers describe is really quite profound because of the relationship issues, the consequences on your relationship that really matters. People feel like life has sort of gone half dead for them, it is a bit the same with men’s sexual dysfunctions, they used to be thought of as entirely psychological and advice was given. It has been clearly demonstrated over a number of years that it was psychologically but physiological. The treatments for men are enormously effective in helping in getting and maintain stronger erections and helping with premature ejaculation.

A women is complex, she doesn’t have an obvious sign like a man. A guy feels clearly aroused. The desire and arousal for women is a harder thing to study, but there is absolutely no doubt that the biology of prolactin are working and the women are demonstrating this by themselves.


Olivia are you able to share with us one of the stories of the women from the program?

Olivia DeVere : There is a 33 year old lady, Abby, she was calling in, a very intelligent woman who had just had her third child and she had just broken up with her husband and she was feeling very low. She started on the program because she had absolutely no libido, no desire to have sex and she wasn’t self-stimulating and it had been going on for six or seven years and she was only 33, very young. Abby got on the program and received reasonably quick results, within the third of four week she began orgasming and made her own time. She has now returned to be with her husband because she got in touch with her own sexuality and sexual identify made her feel so much better about herself, she couldn’t even deal with her husbands problems or what she wanted for her husband before she addressed her own sexual identity.

I have another story, a lady who is 53 and she has been married for 23 and hasn’t had an orgasm in 15 years, no joke. It is sad because she loves her husband and they were growing apart because of it. After being on the program for nine months she and her husband booked a second honeymoon.


How often are results seen?

Dr. Chris Fenton : It is very variable. The gel is pretty affective, we do increase from one squirt to two squirts over a period of time depending on the response and some will have an orgasm for the first time in a long time. Results are seen, sometimes they take longer. With the loss of libido and sex drive, that takes longer because we have to build up levels in the brain over time.


Olivia DeVere : I see it like going to the gym, you can go to a couple of sessions and feel great but it takes time, it a long program.


Are there any other common stories?

Dr. Chris Fenton : Another really common story with women in regards to loss of libido have a recurring thing in their lives, every time they have a new relationship in their lives they are really interested in sex for a few months, then steadily it goes off until about six months they have lost all sex drive again, it is because of the new attraction. They don’t want it to happen because they value the relationship. There are other women who know that every time they have had a relationship in the past they know their lack of sex drive, or interest, or pleasure in sex has eventually ended the relationship; so they are single at the moment and they really want to get back into a relationship and they don’t want it to happen again. They ring in the hope they will get ready and right.


Dr. Chris Fenton: Dr Chris Fenton, M.B., B.S treats patients in Advanced Medical Institute’s, Women’s program and devotes part of his time to the Hospital of Hope, Timor Leste.

Olivia DeVere : is Advanced Medical Institute’s (AMI’s), Women’s Sex Education Correspondent, also known as Lady ‘O’. Olivia has extensive knowledge about the issue of sexual dysfunction as she talks to women every day taking part in the program.

Brooke Hunter