Outcomes & Objectives

Target Audience

Potential attendees of the courses include (but or not limited to) physicians, residents, students, nurse practitioners, physical therapists and sex therapists.

Outcomes

  • Providers will be educated about the prevalence and classification of sexual disorders and improve their detection and evaluation of these problems in an array of clinical settings. 
  • HCPs will screen women for DSM 5 sexual dysfunctions on a routine basis using validated screening tools.
  • Practitioners will perform well organized interviews with female patients with sexual problems and their partners. 
  • Improvement in competence of providers resulting in better patient (and partner) understanding the specific dysfunction, potentially better treatment compliance and finally better patient outcomes.
  • The ability to diagnose, counsel, and treat women who may manifest sexual health concerns as a result of having common gynecologic conditions.
  • The ability to diagnose, counsel, and treat women who may manifest sexual health concerns during pregnancy and the postpartum period. 
  • Integrating targeted, evidence-based therapies can provide tangible improvements in feelings and behaviors in patients with sexual dysfunction. 
  • Patient outcome is improved as shown by FSFI increasing and SDS-R decreasing.
  • Providers will fully evaluate women with sexual problems and psychiatric co-morbidity and implement evidence-based treatment strategies that address the complex relationship between these clinical conditions. 
  • A thorough understanding of gender dysphoria, treatment options and current standards of care will lead to improvement in knowledge base and ability to inform and treat patients.
  • The sexual concerns of female cancer survivors are addressed in a compassionate and evidence-based fashion.
  • Fair-balanced, scientific education about contraceptive methods and sexual function.
  • Obtaining a dyspareunia history and physical examination regularly when assessing a patient complaining of dyspareunia.
  • Fair-balanced, scientific education about sexual pain generators will be taught and translated into clinical practice. 
  • The practitioner will be able to determine the different causes of dyspareunia and therefore better able to treat it appropriately.
  • Fair-balanced, scientific education about HPV and vulvar disease will be taught and translated into clinical practice. 
  • Fair-balanced, scientific education about HPV and vulvar disease will be taught and translated into clinical practice. 
  • Increased utilization of the appropriate surgery interventions to help women with dyspareunia. 
  • A thorough review of the data, risks and benefits in different patient circumstances, presentations of the choices and options available to patients and key discussion points will lead to improvement in knowledge base and ability to inform and treat patients.
  • Clinicians will utilize evidence regarding testosterone therapy efficacy and safety in the management strategies for HSDD.
  • Providers learn how to counsel patients about the benefits and risks associated with off label testosterone use and to advise patients in selecting various off label testosterone treatments available. 
  • By reviewing the evidence-based data regarding the efficacy, risks, and benefits of both hormonal and nonhormonal treatment options for GSM, healthcare providers can better educate their patients and facilitate the decision-making process when it comes to managing this common condition.
  • Better understanding of off-label and future treatments for FSD that may one day be improved treatments.
  • Improvement in the number of providers willing to manage PGAD will lead to more women able to be helped as they often are unable to travel to see a specialist.
  • Increased diagnosis and proper treatment of the specific vulvar dermatoses.
  • Using diagnostic tools such as vulvoscopy and QST allow the provider to give a more exact diagnosis therefore provide a more targeted treatment.
  • Better decision making in the face of management problems to help patients get the most benefit and fewer risks from taking HT, and allow them a comfortable course of therapy individualized for their needs, whether short or longer term.
  • Fair-balanced, scientific education about musculoskeletal sources of sexual dysfunction will be taught and translated into clinical practice. 
  • Clinicians will use the motivational interviewing technique Ask-Tell-Ask, which assesses the patient’s prior knowledge/experience as well as the patient’s reactions to a recommended treatment strategy, when counseling patients about sexual problems. 
  • Education regarding use of coding and specific billing practices can facilitate success in clinical practice.
  • Patients with neuroproliferative vestibulodynia who fail conservative treatment options require surgical intervention so a better understanding of this diagnosis and treatment will result in more women with the problem being effectively treated.
  • Increased diagnostic accuracy and disorder specific treatment for dyspareunia facilitated by using a diagnostic algorithm to determine the specific cause of dyspareunia.
  • Case reports allow attendees to interact with faculty to discuss interpretation of diagnostic testing and make treatment recommendations that can later be used in their practices.
  • HCPs can easily incorporate some basic counseling by changing the language they use when eliciting their patient’s sexual health history, and recommend sex therapy from a professional when appropriate.
  • Fair-balanced, scientific education about vaginal  lubricants, moisturizers and vulvar creams for use in women with sexual dysfunction will be taught and translated into clinical practice. 
  • The ability to provide culturally-informed care in the diagnosis, counseling, and treatment of women who may experience sexual health concerns as a result of a particular cultural norm or practice. 

Objectives

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be better able to:

  • Describe the broad epidemiology, prevalence, classification systems and models for female sexual disorders in clinical practice.
  • Develop skills that allow for discussing sexual concerns with female patients; review content to be covered in screening and diagnosis.
  • Utilize demonstration interviews with live patients and their partners to teach optimal sexual problem history taking. 
  • Describe the various diagnostic tests needed to properly diagnose a women with sexual dysfunction.
  • Identify the impact of common gynecologic conditions on women’s sexual health; integrate evidence-based practice.
  • Distinguish patterns of sexuality during pregnancy and the postpartum; Recognize strategies that will facilitate counseling and discussion with patients on expected changes in sexual health during pregnancy and the postpartum. 
  • Describe components of cognitive-behavior sex therapy.
  • Cite rational and logical use of off-label treatments affecting central excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters.
  • Describe the relationship between common psychiatric disorders in women, particularly depression, and female sexual dysfunctions and provide an evidenced-based approach to the appropriate use of psychopharmacological agents in this clinical context. 
  • Describe the nature of gender dysphoria, its etiology and treatment options; Cite the changes in the standards of care for the treatment of gender dysphoria that have been designed to keep up to date with new advances and to remove unnecessary hurdles to access care.
  • Identify the psychosocial and physiologic factors that can negatively impact a woman’s sexual function following a cancer diagnosis and treatment; Apply a multidisciplinary treatment approach to female sexual dysfunction in the cancer survivor.
  • Describe the potential positive and negative impact of various contraceptive methods on sexual function.
  • Learn the true prevalence of dyspareunia; Learn the important anatomic landmarks to examine in an exam for a woman with dyspareunia.
  • Describe the possible sources of sexual pain related to skin, musculoskeletal, infective, pharmacologic and genitourinary factors.
  • Know the three most common causes of dyspareunia; Learn the appropriate aspects of the medical history and physical examination that determine the cause of the dyspareunia.
  • Describe the vulvoscopic presentations of VIN and non-neoplastic vulvar dermatologic conditions, indicating when to biopsy for diagnostic purposes.
  • Characterize HPV and other possible vulvar diseases that may be seen through the course of examining women presenting with dyspareunia and therefore can be successfully treated.
  • Learn to recognize which subset of women will benefit from the surgical treatment of dyspareunia; Learn the proper techniques for vulvar vestibulectomy.
  • Apply relevant data and appropriate individual choices to the education of patients in order to guide them through the process of HT decision making; Analyze the major differences in available HT choices to help individualize the treatment and enhance the benefits while decreasing the risks for the menopausal patient.
  • Discuss the efficacy and safety of testosterone therapy for Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder in women.
  • Identify the benefits and risks associated with off label testosterone use for Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (distressing low sexual desire); Compare and contrast the off label use of various FDA-approved male products in women and compounded testosterone treatment options.
  • Recognize the clinical manifestations of Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause; Apply evidence-based treatment options, both hormonal and nonhormonal, to the management of GSM. 
  • Characterize the pharmacologic agents and devices being developed for FSD.
  • Characterize the underlying pathophysiologies leading to PGAD and thus direct therapeutic strategies more appropriately.
  • Recognize lichen sclerosus, lichen planus, lichen simplex chronicus; Learn the proper treatment for these vulvar dermatoses.
  • Distinguish when to use which diagnostic test in which specific patient.
  • Discriminate between the use of oral vs non-oral estrogens, in particular with respect to differences and outcomes; Alter dosing and regimen in response to patient concerns and problems with HT; Apply better counseling about what patients should anticipate from and report about their use of HT; Offer the full range of progestogen options with respect to dose and regimen to better suit specific patient needs.
  • Describe the specific assessment and  treatments for sexual dysfunction related to musculoskeletal factors.
  • Implement the patient-centered, collaborative motivational interviewing technique Ask-Tell-Ask in sexual problem counseling for female sexual dysfunctions. 
  • Describe the common ICD and CPT codes relevant to sexual medicine.
  • Describe a total vestibulectomy with vaginal advancement flap and why a partial vestibulectomy is not a practical option for a positive patient outcome.
  • Cite the causes and treatment of hormonally mediated vestibulodynia; Outline the causes and treatment of hypertonic pelvic floor muscle dysfunction; Describe the causes and treatment of neuroproliferative vestibulodynia and of desquamative inflammatory vaginitis. 
  • Apply principals of diagnosis and treatment algorithm to real life situations.
  • Review the goals of office-based counseling for non-mental health professionals.
  • Describe the specific action and indications for use of vaginal lubricants, moisturizers and vulvar creams in the treatment of sexual dysfunction.
  • Describe the impact of cross-cultural norms and practices on women’s sexual health; Integrate evidence-based, culturally competent practice in addressing sexual concerns that arise in caring for women from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. 

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ISSWSH Executive Office
14305 Southcross Dr
Suite 100
Burnsville, MN 55306
USA

Phone: +1 (952) 683 9025
Fax: +1 (952) 314 8212
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