Sexual health and women with bipolar disorder

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the importance of sexual health promotion strategies for women with bipolar disorder in order to stimulate interest and debate in this area of care.

Sexual health promotion is an important aspect of holistic nursing care. However, the literature indicates that nurses are reluctant to discuss sexual health and sexual behaviour with their clients. People with bipolar disorder warrant special consideration with regards to sexual health because the nature of the manic, or hypomanic, mood state is associated in some cases with sexually risky behaviour. For women with bipolar disorder, the associated risks include the threat of unplanned pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. To ignore sexual health and sexual behaviour in mental health care increases the vulnerability of women who may already be at risk of sexual exploitation. CASE EXAMPLE: A brief case example is included to demonstrate how the sexual health of a young woman with bipolar disorder was promoted. The sexual health promotion that was incorporated into her care enabled her to make a choice about appropriate contraception, and also provided her with the opportunity to explore acceptable boundaries in different types of interpersonal relationships. As a result of the episodic nature of Bipolar disorder, it is impossible to state whether the positive outcomes from this strategy will be enduring or not.

Consideration of sexual health is an essential element of the care of women with Bipolar disorder. To ignore it is to neglect an important sphere of human behaviour that can be affected by the condition.