CORRECTING SEXUAL PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS: SUMMARY
To manage your sex life healthfully, remember these points:
In every couple, differences exist in sexual drive, sexual response patterns, and sexual preferences. These differences may become exaggerated by the stress of adjusting to illness.
It is normal to experience periodic difficulties in progressing through any of the phases of sexual response—arousal, plateau, and orgasm. Learn to relax and continue your loving involvement without obsessing about past "failures."
Responding sexually is certainly safe from a cardiovascular standpoint. But your sexual response may be altered by the effects of aging, of medication, or of your overall physical condition.
Regardless of your particular physical condition, you can enjoy the sexual aspect of your relationship more if you use common sense in controlling your behavioral, emotional, and thought patterns as you orchestrate your sex life.
Remember that sexual feelings are a by-product of personality-based modes of relating to others and of the relationship patterns that you create in your marriage.
By lovingly attending to this important aspect of life and marriage, you add a comforting and important factor to your overall cardiac rehabilitation process.
Your sex life has to do with more than just penis and vagina. It has to do with the interplay between your own and your partner's most intimate, most vulnerable, and most wonderful layers of that inner sense of self that houses your unique and special gifts.
By being open, caring, honest, playful, and sensible with each other, you can continue to improve the quality of your sexual relationship throughout your life together.
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