Burden of Misconception in Sexual Health Care Setting: A Cross-Sectional Investigation among the Patients Attending a Psychiatric Sex Clinic of Bangladesh

BACKGROUND: Bangladesh is a country in South Asia with about 160 million people and achieved health related Millennium Development Goals (MDG) significantly. But sexual health is still an untapped issue with predominant myths and misconception. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to look into the proportions of patients attending sexual health care services due to misconceptions. METHODS: The descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted among 110 patients attending Psychiatric Sex Clinic (PSC) of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University. Respondents were included in the study with convenient sampling from November 2016 to March 2017. Data were collected through face-to-face interview with semistructured preformed, pretested questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS software 16.0 version. RESULTS: Most of the patients (93%) were male, 60% were married, 62% were urban habitant, 42% were under grade 10, and 33% were service holder. Total 55% of the patients had misconceptions and 29% visited only for misconception; 14% had Premature Ejaculation; and 12% had desire disorder. 32% of the patients had psychiatric disorders and among them depression was most common, 13%. CONCLUSION: Positive openness in sexual health and appropriate strategy should be taken to improve the quality of sexual life as well as reduce the misconception in the people of Bangladesh.