A wide variety of behaviors, preferences, and quirks are recognized as part of healthy sexual activity. A sexual behavior becomes a disorder, however, when it leads to significant distress, threatens to harm others, or becomes compulsive.
There is a range of clinically recognized sexual disorders. Erectile disorder, also called erectile dysfunction, is a chronic inability to get or to maintain an erection. Orgasmic disorder may be diagnosed when a woman is not able to reach orgasm, and genito-pelvic pain or penetration disorder refers to the experience of extreme pain during penetrative sex. And paraphilias such as pedophilia and fetishistic disorder are present when a person’s sexual arousal depends on fantasizing about or engaging in disturbing or extreme sexual behavior.
For more information, see Sexual Disorders and the Diagnosis Dictionary.