The effect of taking a sexual history on the notation of sexually related diagnoses

Many patients have questions or concerns about sex, but few talk directly about the subject with their physician. Including a sexual history during the physician-patient encounter is one way to indicate to the patient that discussing sexual concerns is appropriate. We observed that physicians at the University of Iowa Family Practice Center were divided into two groups: those who routinely include a sexual history with a new patient and those who do not. Those physicians who claimed to routinely take a sexual history reported 33.3% of their patients had some type of sexual question, concern, or problem; those who claimed they do not include such a history reported only 9.5% had a sexual concern (P less than 0.05). Female physicians were less apt to take a sexual history than male physicians (11.8% v. 60%; P less than 0.001). We conclude that education in sexual history taking is an important part of the family practice curriculum for resident training.