Fears that prevent one from deriving deep satisfaction in…

Team Udayavani, Aug 28, 2021, 11:21 AM IST

Fear is normal. Except when they overpower us in our living.

Sexual desire is assumed to be the peak of all desires and it is difficult for humans, and all animals, to live beyond their body’s desire.

However, it is only humans who can experience and sense the abnormal fear of their sexuality might inflict on them.

Fear of the acts and facts of sexual desire does not mean a lack of need for it. It is only an unbearable fear or embarrassment of it.

Knowing them may not eliminate them, nevertheless, knowing their name-forms might reduce the extreme vulnerability to them.

Erotophobia
This is the mother of all sex-specific phobias: the fear of even engaging in any form of discussion and representation about sex or anything related to it.

Genophobia / Coitophobia
The fear of engaging in coition (commonly referred to as sexual intercourse). Men and women who suffer from this phobia are willing to engage only in foreplay, kissing and cuddling and avoiding penetration.

Gymnophobia
People who suffer from this fear are afraid of being naked, especially in front of one’s sexual partner and prefer coition in less visibility or darkness.

Haphephobia
The fear of being touched. This phobia is not related to sex but is more agonising for a person suffering from it as their anxiety mostly increases during sexual contact.

Philemaphobia
Kissing does cause bodily germs and bacteria to spread and that is the cause, for most of those suffering from this phobia, to avoid it at all cost, including a light peck.

Paraphobia
This is a complicated phobia: the fear of sexual perversion or sexual deviation. This is reportedly mostly caused by one’s cultural upbringing or influences. Every human being knows a few forms of sexual behaviours and when they face or are in such an act of sex that is not normal to them, they could panic.

Ithyphallophobia
The fear of erect male genital. It may suggest that it is a phobia mostly prevalent in women but it is also common among men.

Medomalacuphobia
This is the vice versa of ithyphallophobia: the fear of not keeping an erection for a long time. Both the phobias may make people hurry during sex or engage mostly in quick sex also called quickies.

Eurotophobia
The fear of female genital. In women, this phobia may make them afraid of any form of sexual arousal for fear of bleeding, while in men this may cause them to hesitate from performing cunnilingus or directly looking at the vulva.

Menophobia
As the name suggests, it is the fear of menstruation. This is much less of a sexual problem and more of a problem in one’s perception of one’s body or the changes puberty or time makes in one’s body.

Tocophobia
The fear of pregnancy or childbirth. Women, and even men, suffer this phobia and do everything to prevent pregnancy leading to unnecessary and excessive use of all types of contraception.