What do men and women ask a helpline on sexual concerns? Results of an Italian telephone counselling service

Introduction: In Europe, helplines have become a common counselling service for men and women who are seeking advice for sexual problems. Despite this, relatively few peer-reviewed reports on this subject have been published in the last decade. Aim: To investigate the range of sexual concerns reported by users of an Italian helpline and to describe the differences, if any, between male and female callers; to identify the overlap among sexual difficulties and the associations between the variables of the study. Methods: The study included selected records of the calls received during the 3-year period between 2006 and 2008 (n = 944). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis. Results: Users were more often male (62.2%), aged between 26 and 35 years, who had not sought any previous help. The most frequently reported male sexual difficulties were erectile dysfunction (ED) and premature ejaculation, while the majority of female callers reported vaginismus and orgasmic disorder (OD). We found an association between desire disorder (DD) and ED in men (41.7%), and between OD and DD in women (36.8%). Conclusions: Telephone counselling is an important and effective resource to elicit requests that otherwise might remain hidden; therefore, it can be a useful link between the health-care system and callers. This is true mainly for men. The next step could be to establish a quality management instrument to investigate whether users find the service helpful.