Dear Barbara and Ida:

Thank you for speaking so openly about this important subject (sex).
I am again delighted to learn about a subject which is hardly ever spoken
of.  We seldom or never discuss the subject in our support group I take
my wife to. Thank you for sharing.

Henry Guttentag CG for Wife/62/8




Barbara Mallut wrote:
>
> Ida... I suspect that much of how Parkies in general respond sexually also has
> t do with the individual's feelings of still being a lovable person now that
> they have a chronic degenerative disease.
>
> After managing the Chronic Disease & Disorders Forum on a major Network for
> over a year now, I've come to see how insecure SOOO many chronically ill
> people are when it comes to their self-worth.  This seems to cross the
> boundries of all chronic diseases, and isn't at all limited to PD.  And let's
> face it... when there's an impaired view of one's own self-worth, generally
> there's depression, too.  Who in the world would feel sexual OR sexy if they
> believe themself to be less lovable or unlovable, and/or are depressed much of
> the time?
>
> Uhhhhh... this is NOT an ideal setting for anyone's sexuality to blossom and
> grow... Unfortunately.
>
> Barb Mallut
> [log in to unmask]
>
> ----------
> From:   PARKINSN: Parkinson's Disease - Information Exchange Network on behalf
> of Ida Kamphuis
> Sent:   Friday, November 29, 1996 3:05 PM
> To:     Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN
> Subject:        sex!
>
> To all readers,
>
> Now an answer to the sex question is coming, oldfashioned or post-modern. I
> have some knowledge of this matter from experience and from conversation
> with co-PWP's. Some years ago I attended a meeting of the Dutch patient
> organisation were sex was the topic to be discussed.
> At the beginning of the treatment with dopamine quite wild stories were
> going on about male patients who after their first pill couldn't leave the
> nurses alone. If those reports are true this was possibly caused by the
> very high doses given at that time. But a more modest aphrodisiac effect of
> L-dopa was reported by man and woman alike.
> I myself have this experience. Some people had been surprised by their own
> reaction. They experienced a diminished desire before starting with meds. I
> think it is important that all users of L_dopa know about the possibility
> of this effect. Once I was told a marriage broke down while the husband
> couldn't bear the increased demands of his PD wife.
> PWP'S  differ in this respect also. Not everyone gets this pos. effect. On
> the contrary some told that all their sexual feelings had disappeared and
> did not come back with L_dopa. This can be a cause of impotence.
> Knowing some things about the relation between sex-drive and neurotrans-
> mitters it is plausable PD itself diminishes sex-drive. It has something to
> do with cholinergic vs. anti-cholinergic stimulation, two things that don't
> go together. Sexual functioning needs anti-cholinergic activation and a PWP
> without meds has to much cholinergic stimulation.
> The disappearance of sexual desire might be in some people a primary PD
> symptom. Needless to say impotence can have other causes and can exist
> without the absence of desire. If the latter is true, it is definitly
> caused by something else. In that case a visit to a doctor should be
> advised.
> Yet another point. As soon as a PWP is not longer a junior among us but is
> raised to the status of having real on and off periods, sexual functioning
> is only possible when on. Some adaptation and choosing other times for sex
> can be helpfull. Another problem is motor impairment. Those problems can
> mostly be solved by open discussion and creative fantasy.
> I hope nobody is too shocked by this Dutch treatment of the topic.
>
>                                           Ida Kamphuis, Holland