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The role and needs of family doctors in sexual medicine: contributions of a preliminary Portuguese qualitative study for a global action

International Journal of Impotence Research (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Sexual health is fundamental for overall well-being and quality of life, making it the focus of intervention in Sexual Medicine (SM). Within the National Health Services, Primary Care Physicians (PCPs) guarantee comprehensive care in a biopsychosocial action, including in sexual health. This exploratory study aimed to investigate PCPs’ perceptions about their role in SM and how to improve it. A cross-sectional online qualitative design was used, and a sample of 73 Portuguese PCPs was collected. Data was analyzed employing a summative content analysis. Three categories were established regarding how PCPs perceive their role in SM: “Protagonist”, “Antagonist”, and “Circumstantial”. Concerning improving PCP’s practice, two categories were identified: “Legitimizing Sexual Health” and “Enhancing Professional Development”. In relation to SM, PCPs recognize themselves as institutional gatekeepers and comprehensive caregivers, resorting to familiar tasks to practice in a conditioned framework. To improve their role in SM, PCPs highlighted education investment, making specific suggestions for educational content, resource expedition, detailed guidelines creation, and raising provider and patient awareness beyond the biomedical scope. The results stress the need for an institutional effort to uphold PCPs’ crucial role in SM to ensure adequate resource use and consistent, comprehensive sexual healthcare provision, enhancing overall patient care and placing sexual health as an essential field in primary care.

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Data availability

The data presented in this study can be available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to ethical and privacy restrictions.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to all participants who took part in this study, as well as the Portuguese Society of Clinical Sexology, particularly Professor Joana Carvalho, the Portuguese Society of Andrology, particularly Professor Nuno Tomada, and the Regional Sections of the Portuguese Medical Association for helping to publicize the study.

Funding

This work was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), under HEI-Lab R&D Unit (UIDB/05380/2020, https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/05380/2020).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology and Life Sciences (EPCV) of Lusófona University, Lisbon, Portugal

    Margarida G. Rodrigues

  2. Lusófona University, HEI‐Lab: Digital Human‐Environment Interaction Labs, Lisbon, Portugal

    Andreia A. Manão & Patrícia M. Pascoal

  3. Institute for Health Research and Innovation (i3S) of Porto University, Porto, Portugal

    Nuno Tomada

  4. Sociedade Portuguesa de Sexologia Clínica, Bragança, Portugal

    Patrícia M. Pascoal

Authors
  1. Margarida G. Rodrigues
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  2. Andreia A. Manão
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  3. Nuno Tomada
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  4. Patrícia M. Pascoal
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Contributions

Conceptualization: MGR, NT, and PMP; methodology: MGR, NT, and PMP; software: MGR and PMP; validation: PMP; formal analysis: MGR, AAM, and PMP; investigation: MGR and PMP; resources: PMP; data curation: PMP; writing-original draft preparation: MGR, AAM, and PMP; writing-review and editing: AAM, NT and PMP; visualization: PMP; supervision: NT and PMP; project administration: PMP. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patrícia M. Pascoal.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of Ethical and Deontological Committee for Scientific Research of the School of Psychology and Life Sciences (CEDIC) of Lusófona University in Lisbon.

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Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

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Rodrigues, M.G., Manão, A.A., Tomada, N. et al. The role and needs of family doctors in sexual medicine: contributions of a preliminary Portuguese qualitative study for a global action. Int J Impot Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-024-00864-z

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